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littp://www.arcliive.org/details/bolslievismatworl<OOgoodiala 


BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 


BOLSHEVISM  AT 
WORK 


BY 

WM.  T.  GOODE,  M.A.  (Lond.) 

Hon.    M.A.    (Manchester),    Principal    of    Graystoke    Place 
Training   College,    London;    Sometime    Head    of    the 
Men's     Training     Department,      Owens     College, 
Victoria  University,  Manchester;  Special  Cor- 
respondent of  "  The  Manchester  Guardian  " 
in  Finland  in  1918,  and  in  Finland,  the 
Baltic  Provinces  &  Russia  in  1919 


"...   nothing  extenuate, 
Or  aught  set  down  in  malice." 


1^ 


NEW  YORK 

HARCOURT.  BRACE  AND  HOWE 

1920 


COPYRIGHT,    1920,  BY 
HARCOURT,   BRACE  AND  HOWE,   INC. 


THE  QUINN  ft  BODEN  COMPANY 
RAHWAY.   N.  J. 


Annex 

FOREWORD 

Most  of  the  following  pages  were  prepared,  along  with 
much  other  material,  in  Moscow,  in  July  and  August 
of  the  past  year.  The  interview  with  Lenin,  and  the 
sections  on  Education,  Justice,  and  Transport,  are 
printed  substantially  as  they  appeared  in  the  Man- 
chester Guardian,  by  the  courtesy  of  whose  Editor  they 
reappear. 

In  the  changing  conditions  through  which  Russia  is 
passing  any  such  studies  must  necessarily  be  imperfect, 
and  I  do  not  claim  for  these  anything  more  than  that 
they  are  as  perfect  as  the  time  at  my  disposal  and  the 
conditions  would  allow. 

Their  incompleteness  is  further  increased  by  the 
continued  embargo  laid  by  the  authorities  on  my  papers 
and  memoranda.  But  a  happy  chance  has  brought 
copies  of  some  of  them  into  my  possession,  and  I 
hasten  to  give  them  to  the  public  in  the  hope  that  they 
may  prove  useful  in  clarifying  opinion  on  a  subject 
which  has  been  shrouded,  up  to  the  present,  in 
mystification. 

WILLIAM  T.  GOODE. 

London, 
January  1920. 


19J^SQ4T  V 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

FACE 

Foreword 

V 

I. 

Introductory 

9 

11. 

Interview  with  Lenin 

17 

III. 

Interview  with  Tchitcherin  . 

23 

IV. 

Bolshevism  and  Industry  . 

28 

V. 

Bolshevism  and  the  Land  . 

40 

VI. 

Bolshevism  and  Labor 

52 

VII. 

Trades'  Unions  in  Soviet  Russia     . 

60 

VIII. 

Bolshevik  Food  Control    . 

69 

IX. 

Transport  in  Soviet  Russia 

17 

X. 

Bolshevism  and  Education 

82 

XL 

Bolshevik  Judicial  System 

92 

XII. 

Bolshevism  and  National  Hygiene 

98 

XIII. 

Bolshevik  State  Control  . 

103 

XIV. 

School  of  Soviet  Workers 

107 

XV. 

A  Bolshevik  Home  of  Rest 

113 

XVI. 

Conclusions 

119 

BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 


INTRODUCTORY 

In  thinking  over  the  problem  of  Russia  it  had  been 
borne  in  on  me  that  a  Government  which  could  last 
for  nearly  two  years  against  the  colossal  difficulties 
which  have  beset,  and  are  still  besetting,  it,  must  have 
some  good  reason  for  enduring.  Up  to  the  moment  of 
my  departure  from  Reval  I  had  heard  nothing  about 
the  Soviet  Republic  in  which  the  word  "  destructive  " 
did  not  appear,  and  yet  it  seemed  to  me  that,  whether 
for  good  or  for  evil,  there  must  be  a  constructive  side 
to  it.  To  find  out  what  was  the  reason  of  the  endur- 
ance of  the  Bolshevistic  Government  and  the  particular 
form  its  constructiveness  was  assuming  seemed  to  me 
therefore  a  completely  sufficient  reason  for  attempting 
to  reach  Moscow.  For  I  felt  sure  that  the  thing  I 
wished  to  arrive  at  could  only  be  found  by  personal 
contact  with  the  Government  itself.  It  involved  the 
putting  away  from  one's  mind  of  all  preconceived 
notions  gained  from  newspapers,  conversation,  and 
White  Books,  and  studying  on  the  spot  the  character 
and  mechanism  of  the  Government.  It  involved  also  a 
study  of  the  conditions  of  life,  of  labor,  of  education — 

9 


10  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

in  a  word,  of  all  those  constructive  processes  which 
make  up  the  economic  and  social  life  of  a  country.  It 
involved  an  investigation  into  the  conditions  of  manu- 
factures and  transport,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  into  the 
conditions  of  agriculture  and  the  life  of  the  peasant. 
There  was  a  further  point  which  weighed  with  me  for 
much — an  investigation  such  as  I  wished  to  make 
would  perforce  bring  me  into  close  contact  with  the 
leaders  of  the  Gk)vernment  and  possibly  with  many 
other  men  not  directly  concerned  in  the  Government, 
and  this  contact  would  give  me  an  excellent  oppor- 
tunity of  studying  the  men  who  are  responsible  for 
what  is  going  on  in  Russia  to-day.  It  will  be  seen, 
therefore,  that  I  had  proposed  to  myself  to  study  Bol- 
shevism at  home  in  order  to  discover  the  secret  of  its 
lasting  and  to  estimate  if  possible  its  chances  of  con- 
tinuing to  last. 

My  first  attempt  to  reach  Moscow  in  company  with 
a  Finn  and  a  Dane  proved  unsuccessful,  though  I  dis- 
covered later  that  in  my  case  a  mistake  had  been 
made.  It  involved  nearly  three  weeks  of  intensely  dif- 
ficult traveling  under  circumstances  that  were  hard 
and  wearisome.  We  tried  to  enter  by  Pskov,  but  being 
turned  back  from  there,  we  were  helped  by  the 
Esthonian  commander  to  cross  by  Isborsk  to  OstroV. 
That  bare  statement  must  stand  for  a  hideous  journey 
of  eighteen  hours  by  auto-lorry,  farmer's  droshky,  and 
on  foot,  through  Isborsk  village,  Palkina,  Griboulka 
— the  last  post  of  the  Esthonians — across  No  Man's 
Land  to  Gribuchi,  the  first  "  Red  "  outpost,  to  Novo 
Usitovo,  and  finally  Ostrov.     This  was  a  "  Red " 


INTRODUCTORY  11 

brigade  quarters,  and  from  there,  after  a  long  argu- 
mentative fight  with  the  Commissary  and  the  Staff,  we 
traveled  by  rail  through  Rezhitsa  to  Veliki  Luki, 
always  under  guard.  Here  we  were  held  up  while 
pourparlers  went  on  with  Moscow,  and  in  the  end  were 
ordered  back  across  the  frontier  by  the  same  route 
over  which  we  entered. 

Our  progress  had  been  comparatively  swift,  and  this 
setback  caused  me  much  soreness  of  heart,  the  more 
so  that  I  discovered  it  was  due  to  the  incredible  folly 
of  the  Finn,  our  leader.  From  him  we  parted  at  Walk, 
from  which  place  he  went  on  to  Riga,  got  himself  over 
the  frontier  by  some  means  to  Dvinsk,  was  recognized 
at  once,  and  is  now  in  prison  in  Moscow.  The  Dane 
and  I  returned  to  Reval,  from  which  place  I  negotiated 
by  wireless  with  Moscow,  being  finally  allowed  to  enter 
Russia,  taking  with  me  Mr.  Keeling.  The  Dane  was 
definitely  refused. 

The  first  journey,  though  a  failure  so  far  as  Moscow 
is  concerned,  was  excellent  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  opportunities  it  afforded  me  for  observation  of  a 
manifold  kind.  It  proved  that  in  this  part  of  Russia 
at  any  rate  the  land  is  being  completely  cultivated; 
that  crops  promised  to  be  good;  that  the  countryside  is 
quiet,  hardworking,  normal;  that  in  country  towns 
there  is  no  anarchy,  but  orderly  security  and  work-a- 
day  activities;  that  the  transport  system  is  working 
fairly  well  in  spite  of  the  effects  of  the  Great  War; 
and  from  the  very  varied  nature  of  the  posts  through 
which  we  passed,  it  threw  great  light  on  military  ac- 
tivity.   So  much,  in  fact,  was  gained  from  this  journey 


12  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

that  the  opportunity  it  gave  me,  through  failure,  of 
giving  to  the  world  the  result  of  my  observations  (I 
sent  the  story  from  Reval),  partly  consoled  me  for  the 
failure  itself. 

The  second  journey  followed  at  first  the  same  route 
as  the  former,  for  I  found  myself  at  Pskov  once  more, 
the  town  more  dilapidated  than  ever.  The  Esthonian 
colonel  was  once  again  our  good  friend,  for  he  got  us 
along  the  chaussee  to  the  last  of  his  posts  in  quick  time 
by  automobile,  on  the  direct  route  to  Ostrov.  From 
there,  however,  across  No  Man's  Land,  which  here  was 
some  10  versts  wide,  was  a  loathsome  journey:  a  fight 
going  on  round  us,  and  we  laden  like  pack  mules  with 
our  belongings,  toiling  along  in  the  great  heat  of  the 
falling  sun.  From  that  first  "  Red  "  outpost  until  we 
reached  Ostrov  was  a  strain  that  left  its  mark,  on  me 
at  least,  for  many  days,  both  mentally  and  bodily. 

The  reply  to  my  radiogram  was  for  me  a  passe- 
partout, but  the  presence  of  my  companion  caused 
the  usual  interrogatories  and  arguments  with  staffs 
to  be  much  fiercer  than  before.  Finally  we  got  as 
far  as  Veliki  Luki,  and  there  this  interminable  inquisi- 
tion was  repeated  and  continued  until  word  was  sent 
by  the  telegraphic  talking  machine  that  I  was  to  pro- 
ceed to  Moscow  alone,  taking  with  me  the  credentials 
of  Mr.  Keeling.  This  was  disconcerting,  but  nothing 
remained  but  to  obey.  I  accordingly  departed  for 
Moscow,  taking  with  me  the  packet  of  papers,  but  on 
my  arrival  the  strain  of  the  past  four  weeks  brought  on 
a  temporary  collapse,  and  I  took  to  bed  for  three  days. 
It  was  only  at  the  end  of  that  time  that  I  learned  that 


INTRODUCTORY  13 

the  credentials  presented  by  Mr.  Keeling  had  been 
refused,  and  that  he  had  been  sent  back  to  the 
frontier. 

There  followed  for  me  a  month  of  intense  work 
according  to  a  program  drawn  up  by  myself  for  the 
first  time  while  in  bed  under  the  doctor's  care.  As 
this  program  was  purely  my  own,  and  as  it  was  then 
put  on  paper  for  the  first  time,  it  is  obvious  that  there 
could  be  no  collusion  between  myself  and  the  Bol- 
shevik leaders,  no  preparation  on  their  part.  And  I 
followed  out  the  scheme  of  work  I  had  laid  down,  leav- 
ing when  it  was  finished,  though  I  should  have  pre- 
ferred to  complete  it  by  going  across  country  to  the 
other   fronts. 

Moscow  deserves  a  word  to  itself.  The  stories  of 
uprisings  there  and  their  effects,  of  the  actions  of  the 
Bolsheviks  on  the  population,  of  the  general  terror  and 
starvation,  had  prepared  me  for  the  spectacle  of  a 
devastated  city,  of  great  destruction,  of  an  almost 
complete  cessation  of  normal  life.  Imagine  then  my 
stupefaction  at  finding  streets  thronged  with  people 
pursuing  their  daily  business,  trams  running  packed 
with  passengers,  droshkies  numerous  and  as  extor- 
tionate as  in  the  old  days,  street  markets  as  numerous 
and  as  active  as  ever,  and  a  general  air  of  peace  and 
security  over  everything.  The  streets  were  clean,  the 
boulevards  and  public  gardens  well  cared  for,  the 
churches  open  for  service  constantly  and  announcing 
the  fact  by  their  bells,  and  order  maintained  by  police 
who  were  all  but  invisible,  and  an  armed  soldier  here 
and  there,  generally  occupied  in  smoking  a  cigarette. 


14  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

Of  destruction  the  signs  were  small  and  infrequent, 
mostly  bullet  holes  in  windows,  chippings  of  the 
plaster  and  ornaments  of  the  fagades,  but  in  one  open 
place  a  mass  of  bricks  which  represented  a  large  build- 
ing destroyed  in  the  rising  of  June  191 8,  along  with 
some  tall  houses  in  the  vicinity.  Bridges  and  churches 
were  intact,  and  the  Art  Galleries,  to  my  joy,  were  well 
cared  for  and  even  extended.  The  contrast  between 
the  external  aspect  of  Moscow  and  the  stories  preva- 
lent in  the  West  was  indeed  remarkable. 

One  feature  of  the  streets  was  disconcerting.  The 
shops  were  mostly  boarded  up,  save  small  shops  where 
traffic  in  small  mixed  articles  went  on,  and  hair- 
dressers' establishments.  Many  places  had  closed  be- 
cause stocks  were  non-existent,  others  because  the 
chief  distributing  agencies  were  the  Soviet  shops  in 
every  district.  They  were  numbered,  and  were  of 
all  kinds,  even  to  chemists'  shops,  where  goods  could 
be  bought  on  cards.  Soviet  cafes  and  eating-houses 
were  open,  as  also  a  number  of  private  ones,  which,  I 
was  informed  later,  would  probably  close  as  the  Soviet 
system  became  more  firmly  established. 

But  the  old  glitter  of  the  streets  had,  because  of 
all  this,  disappeared,  and  it  was  the  absence  of  the 
ordinary  spectacle  of  the  shop  windows  which  gave 
a  peculiar  quality  to  street  life.  The  great  hotels  were 
either  homes  for  ministries  or  were  filled  with  the 
employes  of  the  Government,  or  students,  or  workers, 
who  lived  there.  And  the  great  restaurants  and  clubs 
had  also  been  turned  to  the  use  of  the  Soviet  or  of  the 
workmen. 


INTRODUCTORY  16 

The  town,  in  fact,  was  cleaner,  physically  and 
morally,  than  on  my  previous  visits,  but  the  general 
puritanical  air  was  a  little  depressing,  a  quality  that 
has  been  noted  by  others  also.  Life  was  hard,  food 
being  sold  at  prices  that  seemed  fantastic;  but  during 
the  month  I  was  there  I  could  not  find  more  than  a 
reminder  that  food  was  scarce  in  the  appearance  of 
the  public — I  certainly  did  not  find  the  evidences  of 
severe  hunger  and  starvation  which  I  had  been  led  to 
expect.  And  in  the  case  of  the  children,  among  the 
thousands  I  saw  and  studied  there  was  a  general  air  of 
well-being,  for  the  fullest  care  is  bestowed  on  them 
— a  fact  diametrically  opposed  to  the  statements  made 
to  me  before  leaving.  In  short,  my  experience  of 
Moscow  was  the  death  of  many  illusions  previously 
created  in  my  mind. 

I  passed  a  month  in  fierce  work,  and  then  left  to 
try  and  reach  home.  From  Moscow  to  Reval  is,  in 
normal  times,  a  two  days'  journey;  it  lasted  with  me 
for  twelve  days.  I  returned  to  Rezhitsa,  was  there 
held  up  because  a  fierce  fight  was  going  on  over  the 
route  of  my  return  pass,  a  fight  which  brought  about 
the  fall  of  Pskov  into  "  Red  "  hands,  and  flowed  right 
across  Isborsk.  Willy-nilly  I  had  to  remain  till  a 
fairly  quiet  spot  could  be  discovered  on  the  frontier 
where  I  might  cross,  and  it  ended  by  my  getting 
through  '  by  Marienhausen  and  Alt  Schwaneburg, 
thence  to  Walk  and  Reval.  The  journey  from  Rez- 
hitsa (Red)  to  Alt  Schwaneburg  (White)  was  long, 
arduous,  and  peculiarly  distressing;  even  yet  I  do  not 
like  to  refer  to  it.    And  once  arrived  at  Reval  my 


16  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

troubles,  instead  of  ending,  began,  for  after  thirty-six 
hours  I  was  arrested  by  the  Esthonian  military  officials 
at  the  orders  of  the  British  authorities;  and  when  after 
thirty  hours  I  succeeded  in  getting  free,  my  liberty 
was  brief.  I  was  lured  soon  after  on  to  a  British  war- 
ship and  was  carried  off  to  the  British  naval  station  at 
Bjorko,  and  kept  a  prisoner  till  I  was  landed  at  Sheer- 
ness  more  than  three  weeks  later. 

The  chapters  of  this  book  contain  little  of  a  descrip- 
tive character,  they  are  mostly  close  studies  of  the 
Soviet  system,  and  were  prepared  in  Moscow.  Not  all 
are  here,  for  my  papers  are  still  detained.  I  make  no 
apology  for  putting  the  personal  interviews  with  Lenin 
and  Tchitcherin  first;  they  are  highly  important  docu- 
ments, deserving  of  study. 


II 

AN  INTERVIEW  WITH  LENIN 

The  interview  with  Lenin  had  been  a  matter  of  some 
difficulty  to  arrange;  not  because  he  is  unapproachable 
— he  goes  about  with  as  little  external  trappings  or 
precautions  as  myself — ^but  because  his  time  is  so 
precious.  He,  even  more  than  the  other  Commissaries, 
is  continuously  at  work.  But  at  last  I  had  secured  a 
free  moment  and  drove  from  my  room,  across  the  city, 
to  one  of  the  gates  of  Kremlin.  I  had  taken  the  pre- 
caution at  the  beginning  of  my  stay  to  secure  a  pass 
that  set  me  free  from  any  possible  molestation  from 
officials  or  police,  and  this  gave  me  admission  to  the 
Kremlin  inclosure.  Entrance  to  the  Kremlin  is  natu- 
rally guarded;  it  is  the  seat  of  the  Executive  Govern- 
ment; but  the  formalities  are  no  more  than  have  to  be 
observed  at  Buckingham  Palace  or  the  House  of 
Commons.  A  small  wooden  office  beyond  the  bridge, 
where  a  civilian  grants  passes,  and  a  few  soldiers,  ordi- 
nary Russian  soldiers,  one  of  whom  receives  and 
verifies  the  pass,  were  all  there  was  to  be  seen  at  this 
entrance.  It  is  always  being  said  that  Lenin  is  guarded 
by  Chinese.    There  were  no  Chinese  here. 

I  entered,  mounted  the  hill,  and  drove  across  to  the 
building  where  Lenin  lives,  in  the  direction  of  the  large 

17 


18  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

platform  where  formerly  stood  the  Alexander  statue, 
now  removed.  At  the  foot  of  the  staircase  were  two 
more  soldiers,  Russian  youths,  but  still  no  Chinese.  I 
went  up  by  a  lift  to  the  top  floor,  where  I  found  two 
other  young  Russian  soldiers,  but  no  Chinese,  nor  in 
any  of  the  three  visits  which  I  paid  to  the  Kremlin  did 
I  see  any. 

I  hung  up  my  hat  and  coat  in  the  ante-chamber, 
passed  through  a  room  in  which  clerks  were  at  work, 
and  entered  the  room  in  which  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  Council  of  People's  Commissaries  holds 
its  meetings — in  other  words,  the  Council  Chamber  of 
the  Cabinet  of  the  Soviet  Republic.  I  had  kept  my 
appointment  strictly  to  time,  and  my  companion  passed 
on  (rooms  in  Russia  are  always  en  suite)  to  let  Lenin 
know  that  I  had  arrived.  I  then  followed  into  the 
room  in  which  Lenin  works  and  waited  a  minute  for 
his  coming.  Here  let  me  say  that  there  is  no  magnifi- 
cence about  this  suite  of  rooms.  They  are  well  and 
solidly  furnished;  the  Council  Chamber  is  admirably 
arranged  for  its  purpose,  but  everything  is  simple,  and 
there  is  an  atmosphere  of  hard  work  about  everything. 
Of  the  meretricious  splendor  I  had  heard  so  much  there 
is  not  a  trace. 

I  had  but  the  time  to  make  these  observations,  men- 
tally, when  Lenin  entered  the  room.  He  is  a  man  of 
middle  height,  about  fifty  years  old,  active,  and  well 
proportioned.  His  features  at  first  sight  seem  to  have 
a  slight  Chinese  cast,  and  his  hair  and  pointed  beard 
have  a  ruddy  brown  tinge.  The  head  is  well  domed, 
and  his  brow  broad  and  well  raised.   He  has  a  pleasant 


INTERVIEW  WITH  LENIN  19 

expression  in  talking,  and  indeed  his  manner  can  be 
described  as  distinctly  prepossessing.  He  speaks 
clearly  in  a  well-modulated  voice,  and  throughout  the 
interview  he  never  hesitated  or  betrayed  the  slightest 
confusion.  Indeed,  the  one  clearly  cut  impression  he 
left  on  me  was  that  here  was  a  clear,  cold  brain,  a  man 
absolutely  master  of  himself  and  of  his  subject,  express- 
ing himself  with  a  lucidity  that  was  as  startling  as  it 
was  refreshing. 

My  companion  had  seated  himself  on  the  other  side 
of  the  table  to  act  as  interpreter  in  case  of  need;  he 
was  not  wanted.  After  a  word  of  introduction  I  asked 
what  I  should  speak,  French  or  German.  He  replied 
that  if  I  did  not  object  he  would  prefer  to  speak  Eng- 
lish, and  that  if  I  would  only  speak  clearly  and  slowly 
he  would  be  able  to  follow  everything.  I  agreed,  and 
he  was  as  good  as  his  word,  for  only  once  during  the 
three-quarters  of  an  hour  that  the  meeting  lasted 
did  he  stumble  at  a  word,  and  then  only  for  an 
instant;  he  had  seized  my  meaning  almost  imme- 
diately. 

I  ought  to  state  here  that  the  thought  of  this  inter- 
view had  engaged  me  from  the  moment  I  had  entered 
Russia.  There  were  so  many  things  I  wanted  to  know, 
scores  of  questions  occurred  to  me,  and  to  secure  the 
answers  I  longed  to  have  would  have  required  a  dis- 
cursive talk  of  hours  had  I  begun  my  task  with  this 
interview.  But  by  leaving  it  to  the  last  my  month's 
work  had  brought  the  answer  to  many  of  the  questions, 
and  others  had  been  settled  by  a  radiographic  interview 
submitted  from  Lyons  by  a  combination  of  American 


20  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

jouraalists.  It  behoved  me  therefore  to  utilize  to  the 
best  advantage  the  time  rigidly  apportioned  to  me, 
wedged  in  between  two  important  meetings.  I  had 
therefore  reduced  all  my  curiosity  to  three  questions, 
to  which  the  authoritative  answers  could  be  given  only 
by  Lenin  himself,  the  head  of  the  Government  of  the 
Soviet  Republic.  He  knew  quite  well  who  I  was;  he 
did  not  know  what  I  wanted.  There  could  therefore 
be  no  question  of  preparation  as  far  as  he  was  con- 
cerned. 

I  had  spoken  of  my  questions  to  only  one  man,  the 
Commissary  who  accompanied  me,  and  he  became 
very  depressed,  and  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  Lenin 
would  not  answer  them.  To  his  unfeigned  astonish- 
ment, the  questions  were  answered  promptly,  simply, 
and  decisively,  and  when  the  interview  was  ended  my 
companion  naively  expressed  his  wonderment. 

The  guidance  of  the  interview  was  left  to  me.  I 
began  at  once.  I  wanted  to  know  how  far  the  pro- 
posals which  Mr.  Bullitt  took  to  the  Conference  at 
Paris  still  held  good.  Lenin  replied  that  they  still  held 
good,  with  such  modifications  as  the  changing  military 
situation  might  indicate.  Later  he  added  that  in  the 
agreement  with  Bullitt  it  had  been  stated  that  the 
changing  military  position  might  bring  in  alterations. 
Continuing,  he  said  that  Bullitt  was  unable  to  under- 
stand the  strength  of  British  and  American  capitalism, 
but  that  if  Bullitt  were  President  of  the  United  States 
peace  would  soon  be  made. 

Then  I  took  up  again  the  thread  by  asking  what 
was  the  attitude  of  the  Soviet  Republic  to  the  small 


INTERVIEW  WITH  LENIN  21 

nations  who  had  split  off  from  the  Russian  Empire  and 
had  proclaimed  their  independence. 

He  replied  that  Finland's  independence  had  been 
recognized  in  November  191 7;  that  he  (Lenin)  had 
personally  handed  to  Swinhufvud,  then  head  of  the 
Finnish  Republic,  the  paper  on  which  this  recognition 
was  officially  stated;  that  the  Soviet  Republic  had 
announced  sometime  previously  that  no  soldiers  of  the 
Soviet  Republic  would  cross  the  frontier  with  arms  in 
their  hands;  that  the  Soviet  Republic  had  decided  to 
create  a  neutral  strip  or  zone  between  their  territory 
and  Esthonia,  and  would  declare  this  publicly;  that  it 
was  one  of  their  principles  to  recognize  the  inde- 
pendence of  all  small  nations,  and  that  finally  they 
had  just  recognized  the  independence  of  the  Bashkir 
Republic — and,  he  added,  the  Bashkirs  are  a  weak  and 
backward  people. 

For  the  third  time  I  took  up  the  questioning,  asking 
what  guarantees  could  be  offered  against  official  propa- 
ganda among  the  Western  peoples,  if  by  any  chance 
relations  with  the  Soviet  Republic  were  opened.  His 
reply  was  that  they  had  declared  to  Bullitt  that  they 
were  ready  to  sign  an  agreement  not  to  make  official 
propaganda.  As  a  Government  they  were  ready  to 
undertake  that  no  official  propaganda  should  take 
place.  If  private  persons  undertook  propaganda  they 
would  do  it  at  their  own  risk  and  be  amenable  to  the 
laws  of  the  country  in  which  they  acted.  Russia  has 
no  laws,  he  said,  against  propaganda  by  British  people. 
England  has  such  laws;  therefore  Russia  is  the  more 
liberal-minded.     They  would   permit,   he   said,   the 


22  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

British,  or  French,  or  American  Government  to  carry- 
on  propaganda  of  their  own.  He  cried  out  against  the 
Defense  of  the  Realm  Act,  and  as  for  freedom  of  the 
Press  in  France,  he  declared  that  he  had  just  been 
reading  Henri  Barbusse's  novel  Clarte,  in  which  were 
two  censored  patches.  "  They  censor  novels  in  free, 
democratic  France!  " 

I  asked  if  he  had  any  general  statement  to  make, 
upon  which  he  replied  that  the  most  important  thing 
for  him  to  say  was  that  the  Soviet  system  is  the  best, 
and  that  English  workers  and  agricultural  laborers 
would  accept  it  if  they  knew  it.  He  hoped  that  after 
peace  the  British  Government  would  not  prohibit  the 
publication  of  the  Soviet  Constitution.  That,  morally, 
the  Soviet  system  is  even  now  victorious,  and  that  the 
proof  of  the  statement  is  seen  in  the  persecution  of 
Soviet  literature  in  free,  democratic  countries. 

My  allotted  time  had  expired,  and,  knowing  that 
he  was  needed  elsewhere,  I  rose  and  thanked  him, 
and,  making  my  way  back  through  Council  Chamber 
and  clerks'  room  to  the  stair  and  courtyard,  where 
were  the  young  Russian  guards,  I  picked  up  my 
droshky  and  drove  back  across  Moscow  to  my  room 
to  think  over  my  meeting  with  Vladimir  Ulianoff. 


Ill 

INTERVIEW  WITH  TCHITCHERIN 

Commissary  of  the  People  for  Foreign  Affairs 

This  interview  is  an  abridgment  of  that  originally  pre- 
pared, and  is  made  from  the  rough  notes  which  were 
taken  on  the  occasion  when  I  met  Tchitcherin  for  the 
last  time.  It  contains,  however,  the  main  points  of  the 
conversation. 

He  read  through  the  carefully  prepared  interview 
with  Lenin  and  agreed  with  it,  considering  it  so  funda- 
mental that  the  Government  generally  would  agree 
with  what  Lenin  had  said. 

On  the  subject  of  propaganda,  he  continued,  the 
very  existence  of  the  Soviet  Republic,  its  continuing 
to  hold  out,  its  example,  these  were  the  strongest 
propaganda,  far  more  powerful  than  any  written  ma- 
terial. They  constituted  the  fact  which  prevented  the 
Western  Powers  from  leaving  the  Soviet  Republic  in 
peace.  The  man  in  the  street,  he  went  on,  when  he 
is  suffering  attributes  his  sufferings  to  God  or  to  an 
Order  which  it  is  impossible  to  change.  But  if  he 
should  see  the  Soviet  Republic  where  the  workers  are 
masters,  that  would  turn  him  into  a  revolutionary. 
The  worst  campaign  ever  made  is  the  campaign  against 
the  Soviet  Republic,  for  the  West  understands  that  if 
the  Soviet  Republic  can  exist  the  peoples  of  the  West 

23 


24  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

will  not  long  endure  what  they  are  enduring  now.  On 
intervention,  he  said  that  those  who  are  intervening 
support  anarchy  and  starvation,  and  then  say  that 
where  Bolshevism  is,  there  are  anarchy  and  starva- 
tion. 

On  Lenin's  suggestion  of  a  neutral  strip  between 
Bolshevik  Russia  and  the  small  nations  of  the  West, 
he  said  that  it  had  been  adopted  by  the  proper 
authorities,  meaning,  I  suppose,  that  it  had  been  ap- 
proved by  the  Government,  but  that  if  it  were  to  be 
applied  in  fact,  there  must  be  negotiations.  For  in- 
stance, Esthonia  must  agree  to  it  and  negotiations  must 
be  opened.  He  interpolated  here  that  I  could  say  that 
the  Soviet  Republic  is  ready  to  conclude  its  military 
operations  and  to  open  negotiations  for  this  purpose. 
In  general,  he  said  that  these  small  republics  had 
been  formed,  and  that  an  idea  spread  in  Europe  that 
they  were  conquered  by  the  Bolsheviks.  Ukrainia,  he 
said,  had  not  been  conquered  by  the  Bolsheviks  at  all, 
not  a  single  soldier  had  been  sent  there  by  the  Soviet 
Republic.  It  was  Ukrainian  soldiers  in  detachments 
who  freed  Ukrainia  from  the  reactionary  forces  which 
were  there  before.  That  is  why,  he  said,  Denikin  suc- 
ceeds somewhat  in  Ukrainia  (it  should  be  remembered 
that  this  interview  took  place  at  the  end  of  August), 
the  Ukrainians  are  new,  and  not  organized  like  the 
Soviet  Republic.  Now  there  has  been  concluded  a 
military  agreement  for  mutual  help,  but  that  means 
something  quite  different  to  the  organization  of  the 
country.  It  means  the  unifying  of  the  commands  and 
the  sending  of  military  help,  but,  he  went  on,  Ukrainia 


AN  INTERVIEW  WITH  TCHITCHERIN     25 

must  organize  and  bear  the  brunt  of  its  own  difficulties. 
Up  to  the  present  Ukrainian  armies  are  much  younger 
and  newer  and  less  organized  than  those  of  the  Soviet 
Republic,  and  consequently  cannot  defend  themselves 
so  well.  Denikin's  operations,  he  declared,  are  mostly 
turned  against  Ukrainia.  The  population  is  against 
him,  the  Ukrainian  army  also,  and  the  bigger  his  front 
grows  the  more  likely  it  is  to  break.  He  goes  forward 
because  he  has  tanks  and  strong  cavalry,  but  when  the 
Soviet  Republic's  operations  begin  seriously  the  Deni- 
kin  bubble  will  be  pricked. 

On  the  question  of  the  giving  of  terms  to  the  border 
nations  he  said  it  would  depend  on  the  conditions  in 
these  various  republics.  Where  the  population  was 
Bolshevik  the  Soviet  Republic  could  not  make  terms 
with  White  Guards.  In  Esthonia,  he  said,  the  fight 
was  at  an  end,  it  was  going  on  only  outside  the  country, 
so  that  Esthonia  was  hardly  a  case  in  point.  He  was 
very  urgent  in  repeating  that  in  the  case  of  Esthonia, 
Latvia,  Lithuania,  it  was  not  the  Soviet  Republic 
which  conquered  them,  it  was  the  people  of  the  t3^e 
of  the  "  Reds  "  who  did  it  themselves,  and  the  Soviet 
Republic  had  allied  itself  with  the  various  Soviet 
Republics  in  these  States  after  these  had  come  into 
existence.  In  answer  to  my  question  what  would 
happen  in  countries  where  the  Soviet  Republic  was 
dead  (I  had  in  mind  the  case  of  Esthonia),  he  said 
there  was  always  a  possibility  of  coming  to  a  pro- 
visional understanding.  He  went  on,  that  in  agree- 
ment with  Bullitt,  it  was  clearly  said  that  where  in 
these  countries  there  were  Governments  hostile  to  the 


26  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

Soviet  Republic  the  population  should  have  the  possi- 
bility of  changing  their  Government  if  they  wished. 
It  is  a  fundamental  principle  of  the  Soviet  Republic 
that  the  development  of  a  people  must  be  its  own 
work.  For  this  reason,  he  said,  no  army  was  sent 
into  Finland  to  free  the  Finns;  that  was  the  work  of 
the  Finns  themselves.  Russian  troops  were  there,  but 
no  Russian  troops  were  sent.  The  whole  business  was 
done  by  Finns.  He  confessed  that  Russians  did  take 
part  in  the  beginning  in  demonstrations,  but  they  were 
recalled  by  the  Soviet  Republic,  and  if  volunteers  went 
they  were  not  stopped;  that  he  called  a  personal 
matter.  He  ended  up  this  part  of  the  interview  by 
stating  that  where  there  is  support  from  outside  for 
the  White  Guards,  by  which  he  meant  the  anti-Bol- 
sheviks, the  Soviet  Republic  cannot  give  moral  support 
to  this  help  by  entering  into  peace  terms  with  such  a 
Government  so  long  as  it  assisted  from  outside.  The 
Soviet  Republic,  he  declared,  was  ready  to  enter  into 
agreements  and  negotiations  with  the  Allies,  but  the 
terms  could  only  be  settled  according  to  the  situation 
prevailing  at  the  precise  moment  when  negotiations 
took  place.  He  made  a  final  statement  of  policy  of 
the  Bolshevik  Republic.  Its  desire  is  to  be  left  in 
peace,  to  resume  peaceful  relations  with  other  peoples, 
and  not  to  intervene  in  other  countries.  His  Govern- 
ment, he  said,  wants  peaceful  relations  with  all  other 
countries.  The  trade  of  the  Republic  is  in  the  hands 
of  the  nation,  and  it  can  trade  with  any  kind  of 
commercial  enterprise,  a  State  monopoly,  or  a  com- 
pany, or  a  private  merchant.    It  can  entertain  peaceful 


AN  INTERVIEW  WITH  TCHITCHERIN     27 

relations  and  accommodations  with  all.  It  can  give 
raw  materials  which  are  needed  by  the  whole  world, 
and  it  badly  wants  machines  itself. 


IV 

THE  BOLSHEVIK  ORGANIZATION  OF 
INDUSTRY 

Interview  with  Miliutin,  Associate  Commissary 
OF  National  Economics 

He  is  now  Professor  of  Political  Economics  in  the 
Moscow  University,  and  is  at  the  head  of  a  very  im- 
portant Commissariat,  that  dealing  with  industries.  I 
thought  him  best  fitted  to  clear  my  ideas  on  the  subject 
of  nationalization  of  industries — a  matter  on  which  a 
good  deal  of  cheap  wit  has  been  spent  and  many  vio- 
lent statements  wasted.  He  listened  courteously  and 
patiently,  and  answered  my  questions  without  any  hesi- 
tation or  reserve,  giving  me  all  the  assistance  possible, 
in  spite  of  being  excessively  busy,  as  are  indeed  all 
the  Commissaries  of  the  people. 

His  department  manages  some  3,000  nationalized 
plants,  answering  for  90  per  cent,  of  the  full  pro- 
duction of  the  country.  These  embrace  mines  in  the 
Moscow  coal  basin,  producing  35  million  poods  a  year; 
textiles,  mostly  in  Vladimir,  Tver,  Nijny  Novgorod,  and 
Ivano-Vosnesensk;  metals,  in  Nijny  Novgorod  Govern- 
ment, in  the  north  portion  of  Volga  territory,  Petro- 
grad,  and  now  Ouralsk.    His  statement  covers  about 

28 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  INDUSTRY  29 

thirty  Russian  Governments,  but  does  not  include 
Ukrainia;  nor  are  small  or  home  industries  national- 
ized. 

Regarding  the  conditions  under  which  the  factories 
are  worked,  he  described  the  system  as  follows:  The 
head  of  every  factory  is  a  college  of  management  of 
from  three  to  five  persons,  a  mixture  of  workers  and 
specialists.  But  the  people  elected  on  this  body  must 
be  ratified  by  the  special  section  of  the  Supreme  Coun- 
cil of  National  Economics  at  Moscow  under  which  the 
particular  factory  falls. 

The  3,000  factories  are  divided  into  State  trusts,  as, 
for  instance,  machine  making,  sugar  making.  In  all 
there  are  some  ninety  trusts,  of  which  forty  are  con- 
cerned with  textile  manufactures.  Each  of  these  trusts 
comes  under  the  management  of  the  particular  section 
of  the  Supreme  Council  of  Economics  which  is  occu- 
pied with  the  industries  they  represent.  Of  these  sec- 
tions there  are  sixty,  out  of  which  fifty  are  concerned 
with  production,  ten  with  distribution,  or  are  of  a  gen- 
eral character  (statistical,  legal,  inspection,  etc.). 
Control  would  seem  to  be  pretty  complete,  since  the 
first  elective  management  is  controlled  by  a  trust, 
which  in  turn  is  controlled  by  a  section,  the  whole 
controlled  by  the  Supreme  Council. 

I  was  curious  about  the  trusts,  and  he  replied  that 
each  has  its  own  administration  appointed  by  the  sec- 
tion of  the  Supreme  Council  under  whose  jurisdiction 
the  trust  falls.  Further,  that  the  function  of  a  trust 
is  much  the  same  as  that  of  a  board  of  directors  of  a 
capitalist  company.     It  distributes  to  the  factories 


30  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

which  form  it  raw  materials,  engineers;  it  regulates 
their  output  and  controls  their  financial  operations.  I 
asked  him  plumply  what  his  opinion  was  of  this  elec- 
tive system,  of  its  success  in  actual  working.  The 
elective  system,  he  said,  might  be  absurd  in  any 
country  not  centralized  like  Soviet  Russia,  but  here 
the  Supreme  Council  has  to  confirm  the  appointment 
of  all  candidates  made  by  any  local  factory.  It  can, 
in  fact,  control  the  election,  and  thus  any  absurd 
results  can  be  eliminated,  while  the  association  of 
engineers  and  specialists  on  these  bodies  with  workmen 
is  provided  for  through  their  governance  by  the  chief 
board  of  State  trusts. 

The  Professional  Alliances  (Trades'  Unions)  or 
unions  of  industries  have  a  special  interest  in  elimin- 
ating any  friction  in  the  nomination  of  candidates, 
and  as  far  as  possible  all  is  done  in  conjunction  with 
the  local  professional  alliances.  Business  ideas  and 
practices,  he  said,  govern  all  the  relations  of  trusts  with 
factories.  The  system  goes  further.  It  eliminates  all 
conflicts  between  workers  and  the  factory  manage- 
ments. (This  corresponds  to  Melnichansky's  state- 
ment that  strikes  are  unrecognized;  they  are  illogical, 
and  should  not  happen.) 

And  through  this  system  the  workers  in  a  factory 
become  interested  in  their  work,  they  are  personally 
conscious  of  the  part  they  play  in  the  efficiency  of  the 
factory.  And  it  is  conditions  of  efficiency  that  are 
the  sole  guiding  motive  for  all,  but  especially  for  the 
Supreme  Council. 

As  to  its  success  in  working,  he  declared  that  under 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  INDUSTRY  31 

the  conditions  created  by  the  Civil  War,  by  the  cutting 
off  for  a  whole  year  of  supplies  of  raw  material  and 
fuel,  whatever  stability  there  is  in  the  industries  of 
Russia  is  due  solely  to  this  system;  that  in  spite  of 
food  and  other  difficulties  there  is  great  labor  dis- 
cipline, and  that  the  full  systematization  of  industry 
gives  the  Supreme  Council  the  power  to  maks  plans 
for  production,  to  distribute  orders  where  they  can  be 
best  carried  out,  according  to  resources — in  a  word, 
that  it  gives  full  knowledge  of  what  can  be  done,  and 
where,  for  the  best.  Under  this  system  full  centraliza- 
tion is  reached  and  it  has  become  possible  to  administer 
industry  according  to  special  needs  and  to  organize  a 
complete  system  of  national  economics.  Its  solidity  is 
best  demonstrated  by  the  ability  to  set  up  new  plants, 
and  they  have  put  up  two  new  central  electric  stations, 
various  new  plants,  several  new  railways  have  been 
built  in  Podolia,  and  in  the  Moscow  Government  a  new 
locomotive  works,  turning  out  two  new  engines  in  the 
week  of  this  interview.  Of  course,  the  system,  like  all 
new  systems,  has  to  fight  against  the  difficulties  of 
present  conditions  obtaining  in  Russia,  and  it  has  its 
defects.  Yet  in  an  existence  of  less  than  two  years 
it  has  brought  forward  from  the  ranks  of  the  workers 
a  series  of  excellent  administrators,  of  managers,  men 
who  have  been  placed  on  the  Supreme  Council — in 
fact,  it  is  a  system  selective  of  the  best  brains  of  the 
workers,  from  the  masses  up. 

That,  it  seems  to  me,  is  high  praise;  but  I  put  a 
last  question  on  the  effect  of  this  system  on  output. 
As  MiUutin  said,  the  workers'  output  depends  on  food 


32  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

and  conditions  generally,  it  is  a  physical  and  physio- 
logical proposition.  Owing  to  difficult  conditions 
which  we  do  not  conceal,  we  have  succeeded  only  in 
some  factories  to  raise  the  output,  especially  in  those 
working  on  war  orders.  And  during  the  last  year 
industrial  Russia  has  been  living  on  the  food  of  those 
parts  of  inner  Russia,  which  normally  were  unable  to 
supply  surplus  food.  This  surplus  food  came  in  ordi- 
nary times  from  Ukrainia  and  from  Ural,  but  these 
had  then  been  cut  off.  The  conditions  are  not  suffi- 
ciently stable  for  a  norm  to  be  established,  and  yet  in 
spite  of  all  there  are  a  number  of  factories  in  which 
there  is  an  absolute  increase  in  the  production,  which 
as  a  conclusion  confirmed  the  statement  of  Krassin,  the 
Commissary  of  Ways  and  Communications. 

With  these  statements  of  Miliutin  should  be  com- 
pared the  following  description  of  a  day  spent  in  a 
factory  situated  to  the  south  of  Moscow,  where  T  met 
directors,  a  workmen's  committee,  and  the  manage- 
ment committee,  in  addition  to  three  English  mill 
managers  who  had  worked  there  continuously  for 
years. 

Miliutin's  remark  on  the  selective  nature  of  this 
industrial  system  was  borne  out  on  this  journey  to 
Serpukhoff.  I  met  there  an  extremely  intelligent 
young  workman,  a  former  locksmith  in  the  Konshin 
mills,  who  had  been  elected  president  of  the  local 
Soviet  and  was  summoned  to  Moscow  for  consultation 
by  the  Supreme  Council.  Also  there  traveled  with  me 
three  men,  textile  workers,  who  were  now  members  of 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  INDUSTRY  33 

the  Council  of  the  Textile  Trust.  One  of  them  ex- 
plained lucidly  in  German  the  work  of  his  trust, 
besides  throwing  much  light  on  the  forward  plans  of 
the  Supreme  Council  of  Economics.  Here  were  clear 
cases  of  a  selection  of  good  brains,  due  to  the  system, 
for  all  four  had  been  workmen. 

The  Working  of  a  Factory  in  Soviet  Russia. 

Pursuing  my  inquiries  into  the  working  of  industries 
under  a  system  of  nationalization,  I  took  a  journey 
of  from  four  to  five  hours  by  train,  south  to  Serpukhoff, 
where  are  the  Konshin  textile  factories,  to  look  them 
over.  The  town,  which  is  quite  prettily  situated,  is 
some  three  miles  from  the  railway  station,  and  is  a 
town  of  factories.  The  Konshin  enterprise  has  four 
mills,  spinning,  weaving,  dyeing,  and  printing  mills. 
In  normal  times  15,000  hands  are  employed,  and  even 
under  the  present  stringent  conditions  some  6,000  are 
working;  so  that  it  formed  a  good  object-lesson  in  the 
management  of  a  huge  factory  under  nationalization. 
But  it  is  not  only  a  factory,  it  is  almost  a  town,  for 
in  these  far-away  Russian  manufactories  everything 
has  to  be  provided,  not  only  for  manufacture,  but  also 
for  the  life  of  the  workers,  housing,  schools,  hospitals, 
medical  attendance,  baths,  meeting  and  recreation 
rooms,  farm,  corn-mills  and  bakery — everything.  The 
town  can  do  nothing:  it  is  the  factory  that  does  and 
gives  all.  It  generates  its  own  electricity  in  a  superbly 
built  and  installed  generatmg  station,  has  built  its  own 


34  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

railway  to  a  forest  to  supply  itself  with  wood  for  fuel, 
since  naphtha  and  coal  are  cut  off,  and  presents  a 
number  of  problems  and  opportunities  which  are  en- 
tirely lacking  to  a  similar  undertaking  in  Lancashire. 
Its  fabrics  were  well  known  before  the  war,  outside  of 
Russia.  The  character  of  its  present  output  has 
changed  for  obvious  reasons. 

Among  its  mill  managers  are  three  men,  from  Lanca- 
shire, and  on  the  general  direction  chosen  by  the  work- 
men are  two  former  directors,  a  director  and  the  tech- 
nical manager — their  election  being  an  evidence  of  the 
confidence  they  had  generated  in  their  workmen.  Alto- 
gether it  was  not  only  a  place  worth  visiting,  but  from 
its  size  and  the  character  of  the  personnel  it  was  likely 
to  prove  instructive  on  the  Soviet  system  of  running 
industries. 

The  technical  manager  was  quite  frank.  According 
to  him  the  system,  in  the  early  days  of  its  action,  was 
disastrous.  The  workmen,  who  are  peasants  drawn 
from  the  surrounding  villages,  and  who  leave  for  tilling 
or  harvesting  their  land  when  these  become  necessary, 
were  unable  to  understand  anything  except  that  the 
Revolution  gave  them  the  right  to  do  as  they  pleased. 
The  output  went  down  to  40  per  cent.,  and  chaos  in 
government  ensued.  But  with  experience,  and  by 
changing  the  powers  of  the  various  committees,  an 
improved  condition  of  things  had  come  about,  work 
went  on  smoothly,  though  even  yet  there  were  causes 
of  trouble  existing,  and  this  year  had  seen  the  factory 
and  the  system  satisfactorily  adjusted. 

Each  mill  has  its  own  workmen's  committee,  who 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  INDUSTRY  35 

are  elected,  and  there  is  a  management  committee  of 
five  members  for  the  four  mills,  on  which  are  elected 
workmen,  members  of  the  Professional  Alliance 
(Union)  and  technical  staff.  Then,  as  this  district  is 
a  textile  working  district,  the  eleven  cotton  mills  in  it 
are  organized  into  a  State  Trust,  which  controls  22,000 
workers.  The  Trust  has  a  directing  committee  of  nine 
members,  of  whom  three  are  elected  by  workmen, 
three  by  the  Professional  Alliances,  and  three  by  the 
local  branch  of  the  Supreme  Council  of  National  Eco- 
nomics, which  governs  all  industries. 

This  committee  governs  the  eleven  mills  in  all  senses. 
It  controls  their  financial  arrangements,  and  all  esti- 
mates of  whatever  nature  must  be  put  in  six  months  in 
advance;  they  are  then  submitted  to  the  appropriate 
section  of  the  Supreme  Council  for  ratification,  finally 
going  before  the  Supreme  Council  of  National  Eco- 
nomics itself. 

Each  item  of  these  estimates  can  be  examined  by 
the  Trust  Committee,  and  they  are  able  to  compare 
items  from  one  mill  with  corresponding  items  from 
others.  The  scheme  allows  for  complete  control  of 
the  distribution  of  raw  material,  of  orders,  and  the 
governing  idea  is  that  of  correspondence  between  the 
mills  and  mutual  help. 

The  committee  I  met  governed  eleven  cotton  mills. 
For  those  using  flax  other  committees  were  formed, 
and  so  on.  I  asked  about  the  taking  on  of  men  or 
their  dismissal,  and  learned  that  it  is  really  done  in 
the  first  instance  by  the  workmen's  committee  in  the 
mills,  discussed  with  the  management  committee,  and 


36  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

is  only  controlled  in  a  general  way  by  the  Committee 
of  the  Trust. 

The  Trust  Committee  works  hand  in  hand  with  the 
Professional  Alliances  (Unions)  in  their  local  branch. 
Delegates  attend  the  meetings,  and  one  member  of 
the  Alliances  has  a  vote  in  the  proceedings.  In  this 
way  all  reason  for  friction  between  them  is  removed. 
It  might  be  thought  that  this  is  guild  socialism.  I 
was  told  it  is  not.  The  mills  are  not  in  the  hands  of 
the  unions,  who  are  only  partly  controlling  the  in- 
dustry. 

But  by  the  composition  and  working  of  the  com- 
mittees all  friction  is  obviated.  That  this  must  be 
so  is  obvious  when  one  considers  that  every  workman 
in  the  mills,  whatever  his  trade — spinner,  smith,  etc. — 
is  a  member  of  the  same  Alliance  (textiles),  and  is 
fully  represented  on  all  committees.  This  formation 
of  unions  by  industry  and  not  by  trade  has  another 
good  quality.  It  prevents  sectional  strikes;  further, 
a  strike  in  one  mill  need  not  affect  other  mills. 

The  workmen's  committees  have  their  hands  full 
with  the  labor  discipline,  observation  of  rules  and 
laws,  matters  affecting  the  health,  housing,  culture  of 
the  workers;  and  the  men  I  met,  the  chairmen  and  the 
committee  members,  seemed  highly  intelligent,  and 
were  evidently  proud  of  their  position.  They  control 
yet  another  matter.  Workmen  are  allowed  by  law  to 
proceed  to  their  villages  in  search  of  supplies,  and  to 
bring  back  amounts  up  to  2  poods  in  weight  (80  lb.). 
The  lists  of  those  people  are  drawn  up  and  certified 
by  the  workmen's  committees,  though  it  can  be  imag- 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  INDUSTRY  37 

ined  what  an  element  of  uncertainty  it  places  in  the 
hands  of  the  management,  especially  when  in  addition 
orders  for  mobilization  of  a  certain  percentage  of 
workers  may  arrive  at  any  moment. 

Workmen  are  paid  according  to  very  elaborate 
tariffs,  which  have  been  prepared  for  all  occupations 
whatsoever.  Of  this  I  have  spoken  in  my  report  on 
the  Commissariat  of  Labor.  It  is  here  that  the  cause 
of  present  trouble  exists.  A  rigidity  of  tariff  allows  no 
margin  within  which  the  management  can  act;  but  at- 
tention has  been  drawn  to  this,  and  a  revision  in  the 
sense  required  is  being  undertaken. 

My  frank  discussion  with  the  management,  the 
Englishmen,  and  the  committees  left  the  impression 
that  this  huge  concern  was  being  managed  success- 
fully on  the  Soviet  Committee  system,  and  that  in  a 
time  of  peculiar  and  great  difficulty.  The  system 
allows  co-operation  in  industry  between  mills,  prevents 
friction  between  Professional  Alliances  (Unions)  and 
management,  and  stimulates  the  workers.  That 
socialistic  management  should  stimulate  emulation  was 
indeed  a  surprise.  But  I  was  told  it  is  true,  and  that 
an  exhibition  of  comparative  output  at  Moscow  pro- 
vides a  sufficient  incentive  to  competitive  work. 

A  Further  Note  on  Industries. 

From  my  long  conversation  with  the  three  workmen 
who  are  now  members  of  the  Textile  Trust  Committee 
I  gathered  much  that  throws  light  on  the  condition  and 
prospects  of  industry. 


38  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

Thus  this  committee  controls  nearly  500  factories 
engaged  in  textile  manufacture,  linen,  cotton,  cloth, 
silk,  rope,  and  thread:  factories  that  are  working  to- 
day. I  have  previously  described  how  it  is  responsible 
for  the  approval  of  the  estimates  of  the  factories  con- 
trolled by  it.  It  was  surprising  to  learn  that  decisions 
had  been  taken  of  an  anti-Bolshevik  nature,  e.g.  in 
cases  where  the  committee  was  unable  to  supply  the 
thing  needed — dyestuffs — factories  were  allowed  to 
buy  from  speculators ;  and  in  combustibles,  authority 
was  given  to  each  factory  independently  to  supply 
itself — a  thing  I  had  seen  in  operation  at  Serpukhoff 
and  at  the  Moscow  waterworks.  Such  things  are  con- 
firmation from  another  quarter  of  my  statement  else- 
where that  the  communistic  practice  of  the  Bolsheviks 
is  imperfect. 

The  buying  of  flax,  first  done  by  individual  ex- 
ploiters for  export,  then  by  the  Co-operative  Societies 
for  the  same  purpose,  is  now  done  by  the  Soviets, 
under  the  Trust  Committee.  Much  had  been  given 
out  to  the  cotton  factories  to  work.  It  is  cut  into  short 
lengths  to  make  it  convenient  for  use  in  the  cotton 
machinery;  in  some  cases  machinery  has  been  altered 
with  the  same  end  in  view.  But  the  bulk  of  four 
years'  stock  remains  in  hand,  imexported,  ready  for 
trade. 

Like  other  trusts,  this  Textile  Trust  has  in  mind 
the  proper  housing  of  the  workers,  and  is  planning  to 
secure  it.  For  the  development  of  the  factories  it  is 
to  build  light  railway  lines  to  connect  them  with  the 
main  lines,  and  help  also  the  workers.    Some  of  these 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  INDUSTRY  39 

have  already  been  built,  and  returns  in  one  year  repay 
the  cost  of  building. 

Talking  of  the  condition  and  the  future  of  the  Rus- 
sian industries,  it  surprised  me  to  learn  that  even  in 
the  midst  of  the  civil  war  and  all  its  attendant  diffi- 
culties and  horrors,  the  Trust  Committees  and  the 
Supreme  Council  have  a  real  forward  policy.  And 
enterprise  after  enterprise  was  pictured  out  to  me, 
from  which  I  extract  only  one.  The  great  turf  bogs 
are  to  be  exploited.  Existing  conditions  have  warned 
them  that  Moscow  must  be  independent  for  light  and 
heat  of  the  Donetz  basin  and  the  Baku  Wells.  At 
Bogorotsk,  70  kilometers  from  Moscow,  a  generating 
station  burning  turf  is  at  work.  Another,  similar,  at 
Schaturskaya,  90  kilometers  off,  began  to  function  in 
January.  At  Kashira,  works  for  using  the  soft  coal  of 
the  Moscow  province  will  generate  15,000  h.p. — also 
for  Moscow. 

It  had  been  my  intention  to  push  as  far  as  one  of 
these  turf-burning  stations,  and  see  for  myself.  Time 
did  not  allow.  But  there  is  sufficient  in  the  interview 
with  Miliutin,  the  visit  to  Serpukhoff,  and  the  reports 
of  these  workmen,  to  disprove  the  statement  that  the 
Bolsheviks  have  destroyed  the  industry  of  Russia. 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  THE  LAND 

Interview  with  Sereda,  Commissary  of 
Agriculture 

Thinking  carefully  over  this  long  interview,  I  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  one  of  the  most 
significant.  Russia,  in  spite  of  the  industrialization  of 
many  towns,  and  the  partial  industrialization  of  some 
countrysides,  is  yet  a  land  of  peasant  farmers,  very 
many  millions  in  number,  and  the  question  of  the  land 
is  the  question  par  excellence  by  which  Governments 
have  fallen  and  by  which  Governments  will  stand. 

Further,  it  showed  me  that  the  Soviet  Republic  does 
not  take  up  any  subject  of  collective  importance  until 
it  feels  itself  competent  to  deal  with  it,  but  once  taken 
up,  the  treatment  of  it  is  as  complete  and  minute  as 
human  ingenuity  can  make  it.  Few  loopholes  of 
escape  are  left,  and  the  covering  of  the  land  with  a 
network  of  authorities,  all  acting  under  a  centralized 
general  authority,  insures  that  whatever  action  the 
Soviet  may  finally  take  will  be  guided  by  as  complete 
a  knowledge  as  it  is  possible  to  obtain.  Lastly,  as  the 
interview  shows,  where  the  introduction  of  a  collective 
system  comes  up  forcibly  against  deep-rooted  habits 
and  prejudices,  the  leaders  are  sufficiently  subtle  and 

40 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  THE  LAND  41 

supple  to  proceed  slowly,  altering  for  the  time  being 
the  purely  collective  attitude,  but  trying  by  all  means 
of  education  and  demonstration  to  remove  the  preju- 
dices, reform  the  habits,  and  bring  about  the  triumph 
of  collectivism.  It  is  not  only  in  matters  affecting  the 
land,  but  in  other  directions  also,  that  I  have  reason  to 
think  that  the  purely  communistic  attitude  is  being,  or 
has  been  modified  temporarily,  with  a  view  to  its  com- 
pleter success  later  on. 

Distribution  of  Land — Its  Ownership. — After  the 
October  Revolution  some  25  million  hectares  of  land, 
formerly  the  private  property  of  landowners,  were 
given  over  to  the  peasants.  Before  that  Revolution 
land  had  been  seized  irregularly,  the  peasants,  weary 
of  the  vacillations  of  the  Kerensky  Government,  and 
fearing  that  the  promises  of  land  made  to  them  would 
not  be  fulfilled,  seized  it,  and  the  punitive  expeditions 
sent  out  by  the  Kerensky  Government  to  take  it  back 
led  to  the  horrors  of  a  Jacquerie,  with  which  the  world 
is  acquainted.  But,  on  the  whole,  the  amount  thus 
seized  was  not  large,  for  the  habits  of  the  peasants, 
formed  through  long  ages,  acted  against  forcible  expro- 
priation. So  far  as  could  be  done,  land  was  given  by 
the  Soviet  Republic  to  the  peasants;  the  process  of  dis- 
tribution is  still  going  on,  or  the  claims  to  land  being 
adjusted,  by  an  army  of  5,000  agricultural  surveyors. 
But  already,  as  the  elaborate  cartograms  of  the  subject 
in  the  department  of  agriculture  show,  in  two  Govern- 
ments, Astrakhan  and  Saratof,  the  distribution  of  land 
among  peasants  is  complete;  in  other  Governments 
complete  in  varying  proportions. 


42  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

The  Principle  of  Distribution  arranges  for  giving  to 
a  family  the  amount  of  land  which  it  can  work,  and  a 
rough  scale  for  the  distribution  can  be  at  once  got  in 
any  district  from  the  amount  of  land  available  for  dis- 
tribution, and  the  number  of  families  requiring  it. 
But  local  conditions,  character  of  soil,  etc.,  make  the 
amounts  given  vary  much.  And  whereas  in  some  prov- 
inces the  needs  of  the  peasantry  can  be  fully  met, 
while  in  others,  owing  to  density  of  population,  they 
cannot,  the  Commissariat  of  Agriculture  is  making  ar- 
rangements to  solve  this  difficulty  by  transplanting 
peasants. 

Form  of  Tenure. — ^According  to  the  fundamental 
land  laws,  the  land  is  given  to  people  who  can  utilize 
it  without  the  application  of  hired  labor;  thus  the  right 
is  created  rather  in  the  use  that  can  be  made  of  land 
than  in  the  land  itself.  For  if  a  man  ceases  to  work 
his  land,  it  lapses  again  to  the  State;  also,  a  peasant 
can  leave  his  land  to  a  son  who  will  work  it,  if  not, 
as  above,  it  once  more  lapses.  And  in  the  distribution 
of  assistance,  preference  is  given  to  collective  owner- 
ship, above  the  individual,  since  the  chief  aim  of  the 
Soviets  is  to  establish  the  regime  of  collective  work. 

That  does  not  mean  that  there  is  any  forcible  action 
on  the  individual  peasant — there  is  none — but  by  the 
working  of  State  domains.  State  farms,  as  models,  and 
by  farm  communes,  by  publishing  the  comparative 
results,  every  effort  is  made  to  show  the  peasant  the 
advantage  coming  from  collective  working.  Indeed, 
the  organization  of  assistance  and  the  granting  of  aid 
in  the  development  of  the  land  is  no  inconsiderable 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  THE  LAND  43 

part  of  the  work  of  the  Commissariat  of  Agriculture. 
It  works  through  the  land  committees  which  have  been 
set  up  in  every  province,  to  whom  the  communes  can 
make  application  for  help,  and  have  their  cases  exam- 
ined, considered,  and  decided  upon.  This  help  is  given 
in  many  ways,  in  money,  in  implements,  in  the  setting 
up  of  repairing  shops,  since  the  shortage  of  metals  and 
combustibles  does  not  allow  of  the  manufacture  of  new 
implements,  in  seeds,  and  so  on,  the  return  made  by 
the  peasants  being  the  corn  raised  and  handed  over  to 
the  State  monopoly.  The  provision  and  improvement 
of  seeds  are  in  the  hands  of  an  organization  under  this 
Commissariat,  which  is  above  all  interested  in  increas- 
ing the  area  of  cultivation,  which,  since  191 8,  it  has 
actually  enlarged. 

The  Controller  of  Food  Supplies  governs  the  supply 
of  the  seed;  distribution  of  it  is  the  care  of  the  land 
committees.  It  seems  that  no  instructions  are  given 
to  the  peasant  as  to  what  he  shall  or  shall  not  grow; 
it  is  assumed  that,  with  his  accumulated  hereditary 
knowledge  of  his  land,  he  knows  best.  But  orders  are 
given  to  the  agricultural  specialists  employed  to  urge 
as  strongly  as  possible  modern  methods  of  cultivation; 
to  maintain  a  close  contact  with  the  peasant,  who  is  to 
be  led  to  consider  the  specialist  as  his  friend  and  ad- 
viser. To  provide  specialists,  all  agronomes,  i.e.  men 
provided  with  special  agricultural  knowledge,  are 
called  upon  to  register  themselves  and  place  themselves 
at  the  disposal  of  the  land  committees,  on  pain  of  being 
found  guilty  before  the  law.  The  Commissariat  of 
Agriculture  is  covering  the  country  with  a  network  of 


44*  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

technical  stations,  where  work  goes  on  in  improving 
the  class  of  seeds;  in  breeding  and  improving  the  breed 
of  cattle;  also  of  horses  in  State  stud  farms;  in  quality 
of  poultry;  in  apiculture;  all  of  which  is  in  close  co- 
ordination with  the  farm  communes,  State  farms,  and 
with  the  peasants  generally.  Reports  show  that  the 
peasants  respond;  they  apply  for  help,  and  begin  to 
learn  the  value  of  modern  technique  in  farming. 
Of  this  I  had  a  more  personal  experience,  to  be  de- 
scribed later.  Already  there  are  some  5,000  communes 
for  collective  farming,  and  an  All-Russian  Convention 
of  these  farmers  has  been  held.  Of  State  domains 
there  are  about  1,400  in  the  country,  in  size  varying 
from  400  to  8,000  hectares.  These  were  mostly  the 
estates  of  former  landowners,  generally  better  organ- 
ized and  cultivated  than  the  peasants'  land;  they  are 
now  needed  for  a  double  purpose.  They  serve  to  in- 
tensify the  production  of  the  country,  and  they  are 
demonstration  farms,  where  the  farmers  can  see  the 
results  of  the  improved  technique  which  is  recom- 
mended to  them.  One  of  the  tasks  of  the  Agricultural 
Commissariat  is  to  investigate  the  application  of  elec- 
tricity to  agriculture,  and  it  has  experimental  stations 
where  commissions  are  working  out  the  problem  of 
electrical  application. 

The  Sharing  of  Crops. — A  good  deal  has  been  made 
of  the  taking  of  the  crops  by  the  Commissaries  of  the 
people,  and  of  the  results  on  the  peasants,  and  I  was 
careful  in  inquiry  on  the  point.  A  certain  norm  is 
fixed  and  a  sufficiency  of  corn  is  allowed  for  the  needs 
of  the  farmer  and  his  family,  the  transaction  bein^ 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  THE  LAND  45 

settled  by  the  Commissariat  of  Food  which  also  regu- 
lates the  reservation  to  be  made  for  the  supply  of  seed 
corn.  The  balance  goes  to  the  State  monopoly  in  ex- 
change either  for  goods  or  money.  As  the  State  is  also 
the  proprietor  of  all  the  industries,  the  nature  of  the 
transaction  can  be  seen.  The  price  paid  is  a  fixed  one 
made  by  the  Food  Control,  which  has  to  take  into 
consideration  the  conditions  prevaihng  in  the  locality — 
the  cost  of  production,  and  the  prices  of  industrial 
products  in  the  district  concerned.  As  the  interview 
with  the  Food  Control  shows,  the  jull  balance  has  no- 
where yet  been  secured;  much  is  hidden  and  held  up 
with  a  view  to  possible  speculation  in  prices. 

The  Attitude  of  the  Peasants. — These  were  divided 
up  into  three  groups — rich,  middle,  and  poor.  The 
rich  peasant  is  hostile  to  the  decrees  and  the  policy 
of  the  Soviet.  Any  decrees  which  help  the  poorer 
peasants  must  to  that  extent  hurt  him,  and  besides, 
from  the  fixation  of  prices  of  produce  he  stands  to 
lose  more  than  others;  he  can  no  longer  safely  specu- 
late, hoard  corn  for  a  time  of  high  prices,  and  hence 
his  resentment.  With  the  middling  class  peasant  it 
is  the  policy  of  the  Soviet  to  work  in  a  spirit  of  friendly 
co-operation;  it  is  he  who  really  counts  most  in  the 
question  of  the  peasantry.  As  for  the  poor  peasant, 
it  must  be  remembered  that  the  Russian  peasant  is 
extremely  susceptible  to  all  that  affects  his  ownership 
of  land.  He  knows  that  he  got  land  after  the  October 
Revolution;  in  many  parts  of  the  country  he  has 
already  been  reminded  by  the  "  Whites  "  that  wher- 
ever the  power  of  the  Soviets  is  overthrown,  even 


46  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

temporarily,  the  rights  and  privileges  of  former  land- 
owners are  restored.  More  and  more  the  poorer  peas- 
ants are  entering  into  the  collective  form  of  produc- 
tion; when  the  Red  Army  passes  they  assist  it  with 
food;  they  see  that  their  interests  are  linked  with  the 
retention  of  Soviet  power.  It  had  previously  been 
frankly  confessed  to  me  that  there  have  been  risings 
of  peasants,  and  the  cause  was  confessed  with  equal 
frankness.  A  year  ago,  in  dire  straits  for  food  for 
the  center  of  Russia,  owing  to  the  blockade  and  the 
advancing  ring  of  enemies,  the  Soviet  had  to  send  Com- 
missaries and  soldiers  into  the  country  to  take  the 
food.  The  necessity  was  great  and  something  had  to 
be  done,  but  the  doing  of  it  gave  great  umbrage  to  the 
peasants  concerned.  It  was  this  which  produced  the 
rising  in  the  Simbirsk  and  Samara  Governments. 

The  Chief  Task  of  the  Commissariat  of  Agriculture 
is  the  increase  of  the  production  of  the  soil  in  Russia. 
"We  believe  that  can  best  be  done  by  the  collective 
working  of  the  land,  but  we  are  not  carrying  through 
any  forcible  socialization  of  the  land,  we  are  not  forc- 
ing any  individual  producer  to  enter  any  collective 
form  of  production.  On  the  contrary,  we  try  specially 
to  preserve  the  individual  freedom  of  the  farmers,  and 
land  committees  and  other  agents  of  the  Soviet  Govern- 
ment have  received  definite  instructions  to  bring  no 
pressure  whatever  to  bear  on  any  individual  farmer 
to  join  any  collective  form  of  producing.  We  believe 
that  the  collective  producer  can  only  be  valuable  pro- 
vided he  has  become  convinced  of  the  advantages  of 
the  collective  process  of  production,  and  enters  it  con- 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  THE  LAND  47 

sciously  and  willingly.  And  while  we  are  trying  to 
give  to  the  peasants  supplies  of  improved  seeds,  arti- 
ficial manures,  repairing  shops,  an  improved  breed  of 
horses  and  cattle,  fowls  and  bees — all  that  we  are  doing 
is  embarrassed  by  the  fact  that  so  many  workers  are 
drawn  off  by  war  who  would  be  better  employed  as 
producers  or  instructors."  The  statement  is  so  weighty 
that  I  give  it  in  the  words  of  the  Commissary.  It  is 
a  reply  to  the  frequent  criticism  that  the  action  of  the 
Soviet  Republic  is  nothing  more  than  the  thrusting  of 
society  into  the  communistic  form  by  brute  force.  So 
far  as  I  can  see  this  is  not  true;  they  know  how  to 
concede,  how  to  draw  back  and  conciliate,  and  this 
statement  by  Sereda  shows  the  same  mental  process  at 
work  in  connection  with  the  land. 

Forestry. — The  forests  are  immense,  covering  150 
millions  of  dessiatines,  of  which  formerly  100  millions 
belonged  to  the  Crown,  50  millions  to  private  owners. 
They  have  been  taken  by  the  State  and  are  worked. 
A  general  survey  is  being  made  of  them  by  2,000  sur- 
veyors and  3,000  expert  foresters,  the  value  of  the 
wood  settled,  and  the  best  way  in  which  the  forests 
can  be  exploited.  The  peasants  are  not  restricted  in 
the  use  of  the  forests,  for  the  State  has  it  at  heart  to 
support  home  industries,  and  for  these  wood  is  neces- 
sary. Besides  which,  it  is  forming  "  artels  " — ^work- 
ing associations — for  the  working  of  the  forests,  and  is 
giving  to  them  credits.  At  the  same  time  the  question 
of  the  forests  has  been  brought  before  the  Council  of 
the  People's  Commissaries,  who  in  principle  have  no 
objection  to  the  granting  of  concessions  of  forests  to 


48  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

outside  people  for  exploitation.  With  a  last  hint  the 
interview  closed,  but  this  hint  was  significant.  A  law 
is  to  be  passed  assuring  to  any  foreigners  who  wish 
to  come  and  live  in  Russia  as  citizens  land  and  the 
means  to  live.  Preference  will  be  given  to  those 
colonists  who  will  undertake  to  work  on  a  collective 
system,  and  it  is  expected  that  they  will  prove  an  ad- 
vantage to  the  agricultural  system  of  Russia,  by  bring- 
ing with  them  higher  and  better  forms  of  production. 
The  department  of  agriculture  has  its  eyes  wide  open 
to  any  possibility  of  bringing  improvement  to  the  pro- 
ductiveness of  Russia.  This  question  of  colonists 
shows  it  in  one  direction,  and  the  network  of  stations, 
farms,  and  all  kinds  of  establishments  maintained 
through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  shows  the 
same  intense  desire.  I  had  been  so  impressed  by  the 
disclosure  of  the  immense  activity  of  this  Commis- 
sariat, that  I  followed  up  the  interview  by  going  out 
some  20  versts  into  the  country  to  inspect  the  nearest 
of  these  stations  to  Moscow.  There  are  600  of  these 
farms,  of  which  1 70  are  devoted  to  the  improvement  of 
the  breed  of  horses,  90  of  pigs,  and  the  rest  generally 
of  cattle.  They  are  controlled  by  a  special  sub-depart- 
ment of  the  Commissariat,  and  the  director  of  this  sub- 
department,  a  man  of  great  ability,  experience,  and 
extraordinary  full  life,  took  me  out  to  Veshki,  where  I 
passed  the  greater  part  of  a  day.  It  is  a  farm  of  782 
dessiatines,  divided  between  plough  and  grasslands,  for 
much  is  done  in  improving  the  quality  of  seeds, 
although  Veshki  has  for  its  speciality  the  breeding  of 
horses  and  cattle,  and  to  some  extent  pigs.    Of  horses 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  THE  LAND  49 

the  farm  possesses  thirty-five,  of  which  fourteen  are 
mares  and  two  are  stallions  of  the  Flemish  type — 
Brabangons — three  entire  horses  and  two  mares  are 
of  a  lighter  type  for  use  in  towns  for  carriage  work 
generally;  the  rest  are  producing  horses  for  farm  work. 
The  animals  I  saw  are  superb  creatures,  and  of  the 
produce  of  the  farm  I  saw  foals  of  one  month,  a  month 
and  a  half,  one  and  two  years  old,  excellent  specimens 
of  careful  breeding.  The  use  of  the  horses  is  granted 
to  the  peasants,  who  bring  their  mares  to  the  farm. 
Of  cows  Veshki  specializes  in  two  kinds,  one  a  Swiss, 
closely  resembling  the  Alderney  cows,  and  the  other  a 
pure  Russian,  black  with  white  face.  One  of  the  bulls 
is  a  pedigree  beast,  and  there  are  in  all  eleven  of  them, 
mostly  bred  on  the  farm.  They  are  housed,  like  the 
herd  of  cows,  in  a  b5n:e  of  modern,  hygienic  construc- 
tion which  is  in  itself  a  lesson  to  the  peasants.  The 
stabling  for  the  horses,  though  good,  is  of  older  con- 
struction and  is  to  be  replaced  by  newer  premises. 
The  milk  of  the  herd  of  cows  is  sent  into  Moscow  to 
the  Food  Control,  for  children  and  invalids.  In  pigs, 
little  is  done  here,  but  a  beginning  has  been  made  with 
English  pigs  of  Yorkshire  breed,  which  are  preferred. 
The  establishment  formerly  belonged  to  a  society  for 
breeding  cattle;  it  was  taken  over  by  the  Soviet  and  its 
province  extended.  And  if  one  multiplies  the  activity 
of  Veshki  by  600,  the  number  of  special  stations,  one 
has  a  glimpse  of  what  is  being  done  by  the  Soviet  in 
scientific  improvement  of  matters  relating  to  the  land. 
The  stations  are  a  living  lesson  to  the  peasants,  who 
can  use  the  studs  kept  on  them,  and  can  buy  at  cost 


50  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

price  from  them  the  cattle  and  horses  bred  there.  And 
this  extension  of  agricultural  demonstration,  its  elabo- 
rate and  minute  organization,  and  its  direction  by  com- 
petent experts,  is  the  work  of  the  Soviet  Government. 
The  establishment  contains  134  people,  including 
women  and  children,  all  living  here.  Its  head  is  a  fine 
specimen  of  a  young  farmer  from  Podolia,  very  intelli- 
gent, and  speaking  both  French  and  German.  He  has 
an  assistant  and  also  a  representative  of  the  Work- 
men's Committee  as  special  helpers,  and  there  is  also 
the  usual  workmen's  committee.  I  was  intensely  curi- 
ous about  the  working  of  this  committee,  for  I  know 
something  of  agricultural  conditions  and  of  agricultural 
laborers  and  of  farmers  in  England.  I  learned  that  it 
consists  of  five  members,  with  two  deputies  chosen  to 
act  in  case  of  illness  of  any  of  the  five.  It  has  as  its 
special  province  to  look  after  the  working  discipline  of 
the  farm;  to  see  that  the  conditions  laid  down  for  labor 
are  observed;  to  look  after  the  housing,  food,  cultural 
work,  and  health  of  the  laborers.  But  the  manager 
can  act  on  his  own  discretion  on  all  special  questions 
relating  to  the  farm.  It  is  he  who  can  decide  them 
without  reference  to  the  workmen.  Knowing  some- 
thing of  the  difficulties  that  arise  in  the  management 
of  a  farm,  I  thought  that  a  beneficial  reservation; 
but  on  the  subject  of  the  committee  I  pressed  the 
manager  still  further.  He  confessed  that  its  value 
depended  entirely  on  the  intelligence  of  the  men,  that 
many  were  incapable  of  acting  on  it  with  any  good 
effect,  but  that  in  spite  of  the  varieties  of  intelligence 
represented  the  system  really  acts,  that  the  men  learn 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  THE  LAND  51 

through  it  and  their  intelligence  is  increased.  In  proof 
of  this  he  mentioned  the  case  of  a  Soviet  milk  farm 
which  we  had  passed  on  our  way  out.  The  manager 
had  been  there  for  twenty-eight  years,  and  on  the  place 
being  taken  over  by  the  Soviet  he  decided  to  remain. 
He  now  prefers  the  system  of  workmen's  committees. 
The  manager  of  Veshki  seems  confident  of  the  good 
that  comes  from  the  work  of  the  farm,  and  regretted 
humorously  that  he  could  not  show  me  the  difference 
between  the  rye  grown  on  the  farm  and  that  grown 
by  neighboring  peasants — because  he  said  "  this  year 
they  are  using  our  seed."  And  our  road  to  Veshki  had 
taken  us  through  a  farm  commune — a  collectively 
worked  number  of  farms — on  which  the  crops  were 
heavy  and  good,  in  striking  contrast  to  others  I  had 
seen  in  the  country. 


VI 

BOLSHEVISM  AND  LABOR 

Interview  with  Schmidt,  Commissary 
OF  Labor 

This  Commissariat  is  one  of  the  most  important,  and 
as  in  the  Soviet  Republic  the  working  classes  hold  the 
supreme  power,  it  was  urgent  to  discover  what  action 
they  had  taken  concerning  themselves,  not  as  gov- 
ernors, but  as  workmen. 

The  Commissariat  does  not  lack  work.  It  is  con- 
cerned with  the  enrolment  and  distribution  of  labor 
throughout  Russia;  with  the  fixing  of  hours  of  work; 
with  making  the  tariffs  according  to  which  workers 
are  paid;  with  the  protection  of  labor  (factory  in- 
spection) ;  with  the  support  of  the  worker  during  tem- 
porary inability  to  work  (insurance  against  sickness, 
disablement,  complete  or  partial,  accident  or  tempo- 
rary unemployment) ;  with  pensions.  It  thus  combines 
the  functions  of  Labor  Exchanges,  Factory  Inspectors, 
and  National  Insurance  with  us,  with  many  other  func- 
tions, which  require  the  action,  with  us,  of  Parliament, 
or  of  the  trades'  unions  themselves.  The  basis  of  this 
Labor  Commissariat  is  the  Professional  Alliances 
(Unions  by  industries),  from  which  the  Commissariat 
is  built  up.    A  college  of  nine  is  formed,  of  which  five 

52 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  LABOR  53 

members  are  the  representatives  elected  by  the 
National  Council  of  Professional  Alliances,  four  being 
appointed  by  the  Commissaries  of  the  People,  though 
even  here  the  Professional  Alliances  have  the  right  to 
challenge  these  appointments  if  they  see  fit.  Laws  to 
be  passed  concerning  labor  are  first  passed  through 
the  National  Council  of  Professional  Alliances,  then 
sent  to  the  Commissariat  of  Labor  to  be  ratified  or  con- 
demned; if  ratified,  to  be  promulgated  as  law. 

This  constitution  of  the  Commissariat  insures  that 
the  men  who  are  making  plans  for  labor  are  competent 
for  the  task,  men  who  are  experts  in  their  own  branch, 
while  the  elective  system  insures  the  active  personal 
participation  of  all  the  workers. 

Hours  of  Labor. — As  at  present  fixed,  are  eight 
hours  daily  for  workers,  and  six  hours  daily  for  em- 
ployes in  offices.  In  trades  that  are  dangerous  to 
health — mines,  gas  factories — the  day  is  six  hours 
long;  in  the  tobacco  industry  seven  hours.  Overtime 
is  not  provided  for,  but  owing  to  the  stringency  of 
present  conditions  a  concession  of  two  hours  per  day 
has  been  allowed,  the  pay  being  one  and  a  half  times 
the  ordinary  pay.  In  Night  Work  the  period  is  seven 
hours  on  a  shift,  but  neither  women  nor  the  young 
workers  are  allowed  to  work  on  night  shifts. 

The  age  at  which  work  may  begin  is  sixteen,  and 
it  is  hoped  later  on  to  raise  it.  From  sixteen  to 
eighteen  years  of  age  a  six  hours'  day  is  fixed,  and  no 
working  of  overtime  is  allowed.  If  the  sixteen  to 
eighteen  years'  old  workers  do  the  same  kind  of  work 
as  the  older,  they  get  the  same  pay;  working  six  hours 


64  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

they  get  paid  for  eight  hours.  The  remaining  two 
hours  of  an  eight  hours'  day  must  be  spent  in  schools 
that  are  specially  arranged  for  the  workers'  improve- 
ment under  Lunacharsky's  scheme.  As  a  temporary 
measure,  due  to  the  conditions  obtaining  in  this  war- 
time, it  has  been  permitted  for  youths  from  fourteen 
to  sixteen  years  of  age  to  work  for  four  hours  per 
day,  but  only  in  those  trades  which  are  not  preju- 
dicial to  health.  The  shop  committees  control  the 
schools. 

These  provisions  for  continued  school  instruction  are 
an  improvement  on  American  vocational  schools,  where 
the  full  eight  hours'  day  must  first  be  passed  in  the 
factory. 

Rest. — Every  worker  is  entitled  to  forty-two  hours' 
rest  a  week,  that  is  really  one  week-end;  and  after  a 
year's  work  he  can  further  claim  a  month's  holiday 
with  full  pay.  This  at  present  is  reduced  to  two  weeks 
owing  to  war  conditions,  but  even  here  workers  in  dan- 
gerous trades  receive  the  full  month's  holiday. 

Tariffs  of  Pay. — These  have  been  worked  out  en- 
tirely for  the  various  industries  by  each  National  Com- 
mittee of  the  particular  Professional  Alliance  (Indus- 
trial Union).  The  tariff  has  to  pass  through  the 
National  Council  of  Professional  Alliances,  and  be  pre- 
sented to  the  Commissariat  of  Labor,  which  has  to 
determine  how  far  it  is  in  accord  with  the  general 
policy  of  the  Soviet  Government.  The  National 
Council  of  the  Professional  Alliances,  when  each  tariff 
passes  its  control,  has  to  determine  whether  it  harmon- 
izes with  regulations  worked  out  by  other  Professional 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  LABOR  55 

Alliances.  Tariffs  are  changed  from  time  to  time  as 
soon  as  the  Tariff  Committee  of  the  National  Council 
finds  that  the  cost  of  living  is  in  excess  of  pay. 

Social  Insurance  is  an  important  section  of  the  work 
of  the  Commissariat.  In  the  interview  with  Melni- 
chansky  I  have  described  how  a  fund  was  raised  with 
which  to  begin  operations.  I  now  learned  that  the 
system  is  non-contributory,  the  fund  being  maintained 
by  a  25  per  cent,  grant  of  the  full  amount  of  the 
wages  sheet  made  by  the  State,  or  by  the  private  em- 
ployer where  the  industry  is  not  nationalized;  more 
being  paid  if  the  trade  is  hurtful  to  health. 

This  social  insurance  covers  the  whole  life  of  the 
worker — sickness,  invalidity,  unemployment,  accident, 
old  age  pensions,  and  maternity.  In  cases  of  complete 
loss  of  ability  to  work,  accident  or  maternity,  full 
wages  are  paid.  In  the  case  of  maternity  the  period 
lasts  for  eight  weeks  before  and  eight  weeks  after  the 
birth  of  the  child. 

In  cases  of  partial  disability  the  amount  paid  varies 
according  to  the  percentage  of  disability. 

Pensions  for  total  disability,  or  invalidity,  or  old 
age,  vary  in  amount  according  to  the  average  wages 
of  the  trade  in  the  locality  concerned;  but  where 
special  treatment  or  care  is  required,  an  addition  is 
made  according  to  the  medical  requirements  on  the 
recommendation  of  a  special  committee  which  exam- 
ines the  cases. 

A  factory  worker  on  reaching  the  age  of  fifty  auto- 
matically receives  a  pension,  but  other  workers  in  less 
exhausting  occupations  must,  at  sixty,  present  them- 


56  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

selves  before  a  special  committee,  which  decides  to 
what  extent  they  are  pensionable.  Should  they  be 
thought  to  retain  50  per  cent,  of  their  energy,  they 
still  work;  but  if  less,  then  they  are  fully  pensioned. 
This,  I  was  told,  is  a  temporary  measure  due  to  the 
stringency  of  the  time,  and  the  shortage  of  hands; 
it  is  not  intended  to  be  permanent.  Every  considera- 
tion is  paid  by  the  Commissariat  to  the  conditions  of 
labor,  and  efforts  are  made  to  reduce  the  damage  to 
health,  by  introducing  new  processes,  when  these  are 
within  the  means  of  the  Commissariat.  All  matters  of 
sanitary  value  in  the  housing  of  the  worker  come  also 
within  the  scope  of  its  powers,  and  it  has  the  task  of 
passing  all  plans  for  new  buildings  for  workers.  Their 
effort  in  requisitioning  houses  of  the  rich  and  ap- 
portioning the  rooms  as  a  temporary  measure  to  meet 
the  very  great  requirements  of  the  workers  is  one  of 
the  things  that  has  been  strongly  criticized.  I  myself 
lived  in  a  room  in  such  a  house,  which  shelters  now, 
instead  of  two  people,  a  dozen  workers  of  the  Soviet. 
There  are  not  enough  big  buildings  to  house  all  the 
workers.  Most  of  them  are  far  away  from  the 
factories,  but  still  all  of  them  are  inhabited  by 
workers. 

Factory  Inspection  is  now  conducted  by  the  workers 
themselves,  the  Professional  Alliances  are  choosing 
and  training  men  from  among  themselves  who  control 
thus  the  industries  for  the  department  of  the  Protection 
of  Labor,  a  special  part  of  the  Commissariat.  They 
are  charged  with  seeing  that  regulations  concerning 
hours  and  social  insurance  are  observed,  with  taking 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  LABOR  67 

children  away  from  work — in  short,  with  the  full  duties 
of  a  factory  inspector. 

The  Enrolment  and  Distribution  of  labor  is  solely 
in  the  hands  of  this  Commissariat,  which  alone  has 
the  right  of  supplying  labor.  Formerly  the  Labor 
Exchanges  were  made  up  of  representatives  of  pro- 
fessional unions  and  of  municipalities.  These  have 
been  re-formed  into  departments  of  registration  and 
distribution,  acting  through  committees  formed  of  rep- 
resentatives sent  by  the  various  Professional  Alliances. 
When  there  was  much  unemployment,  Labor  Ex- 
changes were  needed.  Since  there  is  shortness  of 
hands  they  were  re-organized  as  "  Enrolment  and  Dis- 
tribution Committees,"  which  are  also  formed  by  com- 
mittees of  the  alliances.  The  "  Enrolment  and  Dis- 
tribution Committee  "  has  to  enrol  every  citizen  and 
see  to  it  that  he  shall  work.  When  an  exigency  arises 
there  shall  not  be  any  idlers.  They  register  all  labor; 
they  supply  all  labor  as  applications  are  received  from 
the  factories  requiring  it,  though,  as  a  temporary  meas- 
ure, in  the  case  of  the  more  responsible  workers,  such 
as  engineers,  permission  is  given  to  factories  to  invite 
workers;  but  once  such  an  appointment  is  made,  it  is 
registered  under  the  particular  trade  to  which  it 
belongs. 

The  Commissariat  has  thus  complete  control  of  the 
labor  market,  and  is  able  to  eliminate  competition,  that 
is  the  competition  which  is  represented  by  men  fighting 
for  a  job,  or  trying  to  undersell  one  another. 

At  this  point  Melnichansky  came  in,  and  the  inter- 
view became  a  discussion  of  the  system  of  labor  control 


58  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

in  its  relation  to  a  fully  developed  socialistic  system. 
It  was  extremely  interesting,  and  produced  some  useful 
information.  The  general  tariff  of  pay,  which  runs 
from  600  roubles  a  month  for  the  lowest,  up  to  3,000 
a  month  for  the  highest,  is  looked  upon  only  as  a 
transition.  Each  revision  of  the  tariff  will  aim  at  re- 
ducing the  difference  between  the  highest  and  lowest. 
The  general  tariff  will  be  changed  from  the  ist  of  Sep- 
tember, 1919 — the  lowest  wage  being  1,200  roubles, 
the  highest  4,800.  But  even  now  3,000  roubles  a 
month  is  not  the  highest  wage  paid.  In  cases  where 
specialists  are  required  and  men  are  invited  to  fill  the 
posts  whose  services  are  worth  to  the  State  more  than 
3,000  roubles  a  month,  they  are  paid  more,  if  approved 
by  a  special  committee  of  the  People's  Commissaries, 
who  have  to  consider  the  cases  fully  and  decide  on  the 
advantage  of  paying  the  higher  sum.  This,  again,  ap- 
pears to  me  to  be  one  of  those  numerous  cases  in  which 
the  system  during  its  early  stages  has  been  cut  and 
carved  to  meet  difficult  circumstances.  Concessions 
are  made  at  present  in  order  to  insure  the  future  suc- 
cess of  the  socialistic  principle.  I  mentioned  the  usual 
criticism  of  socialism — its  destructive  effect  on  emula- 
tion, reducing  all  to  one  level.  But  the  tariffs  provide 
for  grouping  the  workers  according  to  the  intelligence 
required  in  their  work,  with  corresponding  differences 
of  pay,  and,  the  competition  for  bread  gone,  for  the 
minimum  wage  and  the  certainty  of  emplo)niient  have 
killed  that,  there  remains  a  competition  of  interest  in 
work.  This,  with  the  opportunities  given  for  study 
and  cultivation,  results  in  the  improvement  of  the 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  LABOR  69 

worker,  who  changes  his  group  and  advances  in  the 
scale.  I  was  assured  that  this  is  already  going  on, 
and  that  so  far  from  being  killed,  inventiveness  is 
being  stimulated  and  hidden  talent  developed. 

These  men  look  on  the  system  of  labor  control  not 
as  a  dead  weight  on  culture,  but  as  a  direct  stimulus 
towards  it.  And  no  one  could  mistake  the  genuine 
emotion  with  which  Melnichansky  compared  the  posi- 
tion of  the  worker  under  the  Soviet  Republic  with  his 
own  life  in  the  United  States,  where  he  was  a  mechanic 
in  the  metal  industry,  or  with  which  he  pointed  out  the 
consciousness  of  opportunity  that  has  come  to  the  Rus- 
sian worker  who  pants  and  strains  to  improve  himself 
and  reach  a  full  mental  development.  These  men  are 
sincere,  their  emotion  is  sincere,  and  their  statements 
are  confirmed  in  many  cases  by  what  I  myself  have 
seen.  The  Russian,  fundamentally  patient  and  gentle, 
possesses  an  extraordinary  character  capable  of  in- 
tense enthusiasm  and  great  efforts,  and  it  would  seem 
that  the  change  of  regime,  the  new  freedom,  has  pro- 
duced a  wave  of  conscious,  not  vague,  enthusiasm,  for 
cultivation  of  his  own  capacities,  and  for  use  of  his  new 
opportunities,  which  has  already  produced  much  and 
looks  like  being  enduring. 


VII 

TRADE  UNION  MOVEMENT  IN  THE  SOVIET 
REPUBLIC 

Trades'  Unions  are  here  called  Professional  Alliances, 
they  embrace  not  single  and  local  trades,  but  whole 
industries.  At  the  offices  of  the  Moscowsky  Council 
of  Professional  Alliances  I  saw  the  Secretary,  Melni- 
chansky,  who  discoursed  freely  on  this  side  of  Soviet 
life,  and  answered  all  my  questions  with  the  greatest 
ease.  As  Secretary  of  this  huge  organization,  I  imagine 
he  is  in  the  right  place.  He  is  soaked  in  his  subject, 
and  had  no  need  to  consult  any  note  or  book  during 
the  three  hours  the  interview  lasted. 

The  building  where  I  found  him  in  the  center  of 
Moscow  is  so  striking,  both  in  itself  and  in  the  con- 
trast between  its  present  and  its  past,  that  it  deserves 
a  word  to  itself.  This  Labor  Temple  (the  building  of 
the  Moscow  Alliances  or  Unions),  as  it  now  is,  is  the 
former  palace  for  the  meetings  of  the  nobility,  an  im- 
mense building  containing  suites  of  offices  and  a  vast 
marble  staircase  leading  up  to  a  gallery  surrounding 
two  sides  of  a  magnificent  hall,  where  fetes  used  to  be 
given  to  the  Tsar  when  he  visited  Moscow.  It  is, 
perhaps,  the  largest  hall  in  Russia;  a  noble  oblong  of 
great  height,  finely  proportioned.  The  sides  are  lined 
with  white  marble  pillars  supporting  the  cornice,  be- 

60 


TRADES'  UNIONS  IN  SOVIET  RUSSIA     61 

hind  them  are  two  wide  promenades,  above  them  is  a 
gallery  which  runs  round  three  sides.  The  old  lusters 
remain,  and  the  lighting  is  continued  by  a  con- 
cealed fringe  of  small  lights  behind  the  edge  of  the 
cornice. 

My  imagination  quickly  peopled  it  with  a  glitter- 
ing throng  of  courtiers  and  nobles,  splendid  in  dresses, 
jewels  and  orders,  and  contrasted  it  violently  with  its 
present  use,  filled  with  chairs  for  the  meeting  of  con- 
ventions, a  big  platform  at  the  further  end.  It  can  be 
made  to  hold  from  3,000  to  4,000  persons,  and  I 
thought  that  the  workers  of  the  Soviet  Republic  can 
congratulate  themselves  on  having  as  a  home  perhaps 
the  largest,  and  certainly  the  most  splendid  and  signifi- 
cant hall  in  the  world.  It  was  given  to  them  by  the 
Government  after  the  October  Revolution.  Its  condi- 
tion was  dirty  and  unkempt,  for  it  had  been  used 
during  the  Great  War  as  work-rooms  for  the  making 
of  uniforms.  But  the  workers  cleaned  it,  and  in  some 
places  altered  its  decoration  themselves,  and  in  the 
suite  of  rooms  forming  a  long  gallery  the  scutcheons  of 
nobility  in  the  wall  panels  are  replaced  by  shields  bear- 
ing the  emblems  of  the  Republic,  the  Professional  Al- 
liances, and  various  trades,  modeled  in  plaster.  And 
in  the  center  room  of  the  gallery,  where  formerly  were 
pictures  and  emblems  of  the  Russian  generals  of  the 
Napoleonic  period,  on  walls  and  ceiling  are  now  simple 
red  panels,  against  two  of  which  are  busts  of  Marx  and 
Lenin,  resembling,  but  not  particularly  fine  works  of 
art.  In  the  part  of  the  building  given  up  to  offices  is 
a  fine  circular  council  chamber,  the  meeting-place  of 


62  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

the  nobility,  where  the  very  chairs  bear  witness  to  the 
former  character  of  the  place,  for  on  their  backs  are 
the  heraldic  emblems  of  former  occupants. 

The  contrast  between  past  and  present  is  almost 
stupefying,  yet  is  so  full  of  meaning,  so  indicative  of 
things  that  are  happening  here  (where  Commissaries 
of  the  People  are  lodged  in  the  Kremlin  itself)  and 
in  Russia  generally,  that  it  is  worthy  of  careful  note. 

Melnichansky's  lucid  explanation  of  the  Trades' 
Union  system  under  the  Soviet  I  shall  try  to  reproduce 
as  clearly  as  I  can. 

There  is  a  difference  between  the  Russian  form  of 
organization  and  the  English,  where  men  are  members 
of  local  and  special  unions  according  to  trades;  or 
the  I.W.W.,  which  runs  a  general  mixed  organization. 
Russian  workers  are  organized  by  industries,  as  metal, 
wood,  textile  industries,  embracing  all  trades.  Thus 
the  Metal  Workers'  Union  takes  in  some  290  trades. 
But  all  are  united  in  one  central  organization — the  AU- 
Russian  Coimcil  of  Professional  Alliances.  There  are 
thirty  Professional  Alliances,  which  unite  all  trades  by 
the  industries  in  which  they  are  employed.  In  most 
of  the  cities  (i)  they  are  organized  by  localities;  (2) 
they  are  then  united  by  Provincial  Councils;  (3)  these 
are  connected  by  National  Councils.  There  are  thirty 
National  Councils,  which  are  united  by  the  All- Russian 
Council  of  Professional  Alliances.  This,  omitting  the 
part  of  the  Ukraine,  which  is  at  present  in  the  hands 
of  Denikin,  rules  some  3^  million  members.  This 
organization  has  been  largely  developed  by  the  Soviet 
regime,  for  at  the  February  Revolution  there  were 


TRADES'  UNIONS  IN  SOVIET  RUSSIA     63 

only  three  trades'  unions  in  Moscow;  but  at  the  time 
of  the  October  Revolution  all  trades  here  had  been 
organized,  and  the  present  all-embracing  system 
evolved. 

This  conclusion  seems  to  have  been  a  natural  one. 
The  Revolution  of  February  was  a  purely  political 
one;  the  Tsar  had  been  got  rid  of,  but  the  condition 
of  the  workers  remained  unchanged,  and  this  political 
character  was  retained  by  the  Kerensky  Government. 
Strikes  were  in  progress  in  Moscow  and  all  over 
Russia  to  secure  advanced  wages  in  order  to  meet 
the  stringency  of  food  prices.  Nearer  to  the  period 
of  September  and  October  it  was  evident  that  strikes 
should  be  avoided.  A  little  consideration  showed  that 
they  would  be  to  the  advantage  of  the  masters,  whose 
sources  of  profit,  war  orders,  had  dried  up,  and  who 
would  have  welcomed  the  strikes.  Two  months  before 
the  October  Revolution  it  was  seen  that  the  only  thing 
for  workers  to  do  was  to  fight  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment and  secure  Government  by  Soviet,  which  would 
be  able  to  change  the  condition  of  the  workers  in  rela- 
tion to  the  changed  economical  condition  of  the 
country. 

It  would  also  produce  the  effect  of  giving  each 
worker  a  direct  interest  in  the  governing  body,  in  its 
elections.  For  every  man  is  a  member  of  some  alliance 
(union),  which  elects  its  own  member  to  the  Soviet. 
At  the  same  time  it  elects  the  Executive  Committee  of 
the  Alliance,  which,  in  turn,  elects  its  members  to  the 
Soviet,  at  least  two,  at  most  five,  according  to  the 
numerical  status  of  the  members  of  the  Alliance. 


64  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

There  is  thus  a  direct  participation  in  the  Govern- 
ment, both  of  the  alliance  and  of  the  country,  for 
the  members  are  elected  by  and  from  the  workers. 
The  Soviet,  though  superior  to  the  organizations  of 
the  Alliances,  who  require  its  approval  before  their 
conclusions  can  become  law,  can  thus  devote  itself  to 
the  political  development  of  the  country,  while  the 
Executive  Committees  can  care  for  the  conditions  of 
the  industries  they  represent,  and  through  the  Central 
Organization  of  the  Alliances,  for  the  economical  de- 
velopment of  the  country. 

A  question  regarding  rates  of  pay  brought  informa- 
tion concerning  strikes.  These  are  not  recognized. 
Indeed,  one  must  confess  they  would  be  illogical — 
you  do  not  strike  against  yourself.  Formerly,  he  said, 
strike-breakers  were  considered  as  traitors  to  the  cause 
of  the  workers;  now  it  is  strikers  or  people  wishing 
to  strike  who  are  the  traitors.  In  other  countries 
strikes  were  and  are  the  only  weapon  in  the  workers' 
hands  for  securing  a  change  of  conditions.  Here,  on 
the  contrary,  the  various  Alliances  have  Tariff  Com- 
mittees, who  follow  the  movement  of  prices,  and,  where 
necessary,  work  out  plans  for  changing  the  rate  of 
wages.  These  plans  are  passed  through  the  Central 
Council,  thence  through  the  Soviet,  and  so  become 
law. 

On  Hours  of  Labor  and  Rates  of  Pay  I  have  already 
spoken  in  "  Bolshevism  and  Labor." 

Unemployment  and  Sickness  have  been  tackled  by 
the  Alliances  with  success,  though  Melnichansky 
frankly  admitted  their  early  difficulties,  both  in  creat- 


TRADES'  UNIONS  IN  SOVIET  RUSSIA     65 

ing  a  fund  and  in  finding  out  ways  of  distribution. 
His  frankness  was  but  a  repetition  of  what  I  have 
constantly  found — the  readiness  to  admit  mistakes  and 
blunders,  and  to  confess  the  difficulty  of  finding  suc- 
cessful ways  and  methods  of  action  under  conditions 
of  great  stress.  The  school  of  experience  of  the  leaders 
of  the  Bolsheviks  has  been  a  hard  one,  but  they  have 
profited  by  it. 

They  got  over  their  difficulty  of  raising  a  fund  for 
insuring  the  worker  against  sickness  and  unemploy- 
ment by  requiring  the  proprietors  of  factories,  all  of 
whom  had  done  sufficiently  well  out  of  the  war  period, 
to  pay  to  a  Central  Committee  elected  by  the  Alliances 
a  sum  equal  to  4  per  cent,  of  the  total  wages  paid  by 
them,  which  provided  a  fund  against  imemployment; 
and  a  further  sum  equal  to  10  per  cent,  of  the  wages 
sheet,  which  formed  the  fund  against  sickness.  In  this 
way  a  fund  was  formed  sufficiently  large  to  begin 
operations,  which  were  the  more  necessary  because  of 
the  disorganization  of  industry  and  the  unemployment 
caused  by  the  stoppage  of  the  intense  production 
caused  by  the  war. 

A  payment  by  the  proprietors  of  wages  for  three 
months  to  their  employes  who  were  not  needed  was 
decreed,  but  on  the  plan  that  it  should  really  be  paid 
only  for  half  that  period,  the  payment  for  the  other 
half  being  made  to  the  Central  Committee  to 
strengthen  its  funds.  It  was  argued  that  the  Russian 
factory  worker,  being  in  most  cases  connected  with 
a  village,  would  in  six  weeks,  if  he  had  not  secured 
work,  have  returned  to  his  village.    Unemployment 


66  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

generally  is  a  thing  unknown  in  the  Soviet  Republic; 
in  cases  of  workmen  being  out  of  work,  they  are  fitted 
with  employment  by  the  appropriate  State  Depart- 
ment. But  in  the  case  of  any  fortuitous  stoppage  of 
a  factory,  through,  say,  want  of  fuel,  as  has  occasion- 
ally occurred,  this  being  a  completely  abnormal  state 
of  things,  the  workmen's  pay  is  continued  by  the 
State.  For  sickness  special  committees  elected  by  the 
workers'  Alliances  cater.  They  provide  the  clinics,  the 
medical  advisers,  and  the  medicaments.  But  wider 
affairs  of  a  national  kind,  tuberculosis  and  the  like,  are 
cared  for  by  the  State  Department  of  Hygiene,  on 
whom  devolves  the  duty  of  providing  the  necessary 
sanatoria,  advice,  and  treatment.  Melnichansky  re- 
marked that  it  had  recently  been  said  in  the  West  that 
there  was  neither  freedom  of  speech  nor  Press  nor 
meeting  for  the  workers  and  Professional  Alliances 
under  the  Soviet.  In  the  great  hall  I  had  just  seen  he 
said  they  had  quite  recently  called  a  convention  of 
Factory  Committees,  which,  after  discussion,  had 
elected  a  Central  Committee  to  organize  the  best  way 
of  distributing  all  supplies  of  food  and  clothing  in 
Moscow.  A  clear  proof  of  freedom  of  speech  and 
initiative,  anyway,  for  it  was  quite  an  untrammeled 
convention.  As  for  the  freedom  of  the  Press  amongst 
the  workers,  the  dearth  of  paper  causes  curtailment, 
but  he  gave  me  a  copy  of  an  excellent  monthly  issued 
by  the  Central  Committee,  and  of  a  weekly  paper,  dis- 
tributed everywhere  and  devoted  to  the  professional 
interests  of  the  workers.  Besides  these,  every  Pro- 
fessional Alliance  has  its  own  monthly.    In  these  the 


TRADES'  UNIONS  IN  SOVIET  RUSSIA     67 

fullest  discussion  is  permitted.  As  for  freedom  of 
meeting  one  might  say  it  is  an  integral  part  of  the 
system,  but  not  during  working  hours.  They  are  de- 
voted to  work,  not  talk,  and  if  meetings  must  be  held 
it  must  be  outside  the  time  allotted  to  work,  in  the 
workers'  own  time. 

Meetings  of  the  Sovietists  are  held  every  week  for 
the  discussion  of  political  and  economic  topics,  in 
which  the  leaders  take  part — for  never  did  any  people 
so  well  understand  the  power  of  propaganda,  the 
spoken  word,  as  these.  And  I  myself  have  seen  on  the 
walls  of  Moscow  notices  of  a  Menshevik  meeting,  a 
proof  that  toleration  is  exercised,  so  long  as  it  does 
not  lead  to  counter-revolutionary  activities. 

Questioned  as  to  the  relation  between  his  organiza- 
tion and  the  civil  war,  he  declared  that  the  efforts  of 
the  Soviet  to  give  to  the  proletarian  the  simple  rights 
of  a  man,  to  the  worker  a  home,  an  income,  and  leisure, 
to  the  peasant  land  and  the  right  to  cultivate  it,  were 
destroyed  at  once  in  those  parts  captured  by  Denikin, 
who  carried  on  ruthless  war  against  all  Sovietists,  and 
reduced  immediately  the  worker  and  the  peasant  to 
their  former  condition.  The  Professional  Alliances  on 
their  part  were  helping — they  made  a  voluntary  mobi- 
lization of  the  workers  from  time  to  time,  sending  lo 
per  cent,  of  their  members  into  the  army;  in  parts  of 
the  country  nearer  to  the  fronts  raising  this  to  50  per 
cent.,  and  even  at  the  front  itself  mobilizing  the  whole. 
Women  workers  were  equally  subject  to  this  mobiliza- 
tion, taking  up  work  for  the  Red  Cross  Service.  He 
himself,  after  spending  some  time  in  the  work  of  this 


68  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

Central  Organization,  would  depart  for  a  period  of 
service  at  the  front,  returning  afterwards  to  resume 
for  another  period  his  official  duties. 

Conditions  vary  very  much,  according  to  him,  in 
different  parts  of  the  interior,  and  are  likely  to  con- 
tinue so  until  the  chance  of  putting  into  practice  there 
the  very  real  constructive  ability  shown  in  the  great 
towns  has  been  given.  Up  to  the  present  this  recon- 
struction in  the  interior  has  had  to  go  side  by  side 
with  the  destructive  activity  at  the  frontiers. 

In  conclusion  he  said,  "  You  can  see  that  we  are  not 
the  monsters  the  Western  World  persists  in  describing 
us.  I  lived  for  six  and  a  half  years  in  New  York,  and 
other  cities  of  the  United  States,  a  political  refugee. 
My  home  was  in  the  Bronx,  and  in  spite  of  the  violent 
nightly  illumination  of  New  York,  I  never  went  home 
from  a  meeting  in  the  Bowery,  without  keeping  a 
watchful  eye  in  case  of  attack.  Here  in  Moscow  we 
have  no  lights  at  night,  yet  you  can  cross  the  city  in 
any  direction  at  any  time  of  the  night  with  perfect 
safety." 

He  further  said  that  only  a  revolutionary  Govern- 
ment could  have  produced  such  an  effect.  Its  drastic 
measures,  shooting  at  sight,  were  directed  against  the 
hooligans  and  bandits  who  came  out  in  the  social  chaos 
to  rob  and  kill.  And  he  declared  that  the  bulk  of  the 
shooting  of  which  the  world  has  heard  so  much  was 
of  people  of  this  kind. 

Whatever  they  may  have  been,  I  can  confirm,  not 
only  from  others'  testimony,  but  from  personal  experi- 
ence, Melnichansky's  description  of  the  order  exist- 
ing in  Sovietic  Moscow. 


VIII 

THE  BOLSHEVIK  SYSTEM  OF  FOOD 
CONTROL 

Interview  with  Sviderski,  a  Member  of  the 
Collegium  of  Food  Control 

This  interview  was  for  me  one  of  the  clearest  and 
most  convincing.  Sviderski  is  a  master  of  his  subject 
in  all  its  details,  and  the  clearness  of  his  replies,  to- 
gether with  the  sequential  character  of  his  statement, 
made  him  impressive.  But  most  striking  of  all  were 
the  evidences  of  the  minute  care  which  has  been 
devoted  to  the  problem  of  feeding  the  people,  and  the 
elaborately  strong  organization  which  had  been  set 
up.  Of  its  results  in  actual  experience  I  can  speak 
myself.  There  is  in  some  parts,  as  I  found  at  Ostrov, 
and  among  some  sections  of  the  population,  difficulty 
in  living.  But  the  net  result  is,  to  me,  a  great  problem 
tackled  under  conditions  of  appalling  difficulty,  and 
conquered,  to  a  large  and  steadily  increasing  extent. 
In  this  matter  the  honors  are  on  the  side  of  the 
Bolsheviks. 

The  Soviet  came  into  power  in  November  191 7,  and 
,the  first  question  which  it  had  to  settle  was  whether  it 
should  allow  open  bargaining,  free  trade  in  products, 
or  not.    There  was  a  great  lack  of  products  of  prime 

69 


70  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

necessity,  with  a  consequent  enormous  rise  in  prices, 
and  under  the  Kerensky  Government  it  had  been  de- 
cided to  maintain  a  monopoly  of  corn.  The  Soviet 
decided  to  use  this  as  a  beginning  of  its  system  of 
monopolies,  the  chief  feature  of  its  policy;  for  corn 
was  of  the  first  importance,  and  in  comparison  any 
other  thing  was  of  minor  importance. 

This  policy,  the  fixing  of  prices  for  corn,  meant 
difficulties  in  a  coimtry  of  peasant  farmers,  but  the 
policy  of  the  open  market  was  out  of  the  question.  It 
would  make  the  stocking  of  corn  by  the  State  impos- 
sible, and,  further,  it  would  allow  the  moneyed  class, 
the  bourgeoisie,  to  buy  in  the  speculative  market,  while 
the  workers  would  get  nothing.  So  the  Soviet  was 
faced  with  the  task  of  building  up  on  the  ruins  of  the 
old  private  purchasing  power,  and  what  was  left  of 
the  apparatus  for  purchasing  of  the  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment, a  new  apparatus  for  purchasing  on  a  much 
larger  scale. 

The  Apparatus. — The  apparatus  of  the  Kerensky 
Government  employed  100-150,000  people.  These 
were  taken  over,  though,  like  most  of  the  officials  of 
the  former  regimes,  they  were  guilty  of  sabotage. 
The  machine  of  Food  Control  now  employs  about 
200,000  people  all  over  the  country,  and  the  method 
of  their  emplojnnent  is  another  example  of  the 
minute  care  with  which  the  governing  departments  are 
organized. 

Thus  there  are  800  responsible  workers  distributed 
over  the  provinces  who  have  been  trained  and  prac- 
tised for  six  months  imder  the  Soviet  Government  to 


BOLSHEVIK  FOOD  CONTROL  71 

take  charge  of  provincial  departments,  etc.  The  Food 
Control  department  further  employs  400  groups  of 
agitators  of  twenty-five  people  each,  men  and  women, 
drawn  from  the  provinces  which  are  not  self-support- 
ing in  the  matter  of  corn,  or  as  the  Russian  has  it 
"  have  no  bread."  These  traveling  squads  of  agitators 
move  about  the  country  working  on  the  minds  of  the 
peasants  and  indoctrinating  them  with  the  idea  of  the 
duty  of  setting  free  their  surplus  corn  for  use  by 
others.  This  is  a  necessary  proceeding,  for  the  peas- 
ant is,  as  a  rule,  unwilling  to  part  with  his  corn,  and 
the  Soviet  prefers  to  proceed  by  suasion,  though,  when 
faced  with  a  refusal  to  deliver  corn,  by  law  it  can  be 
requisitioned.  For  this  latter  job  an  army  of  40,000 
men  and  officers  has  been  formed,  whose  duty  is  to 
enforce  the  law  regarding  surplus  corn. 

The  Normal  Process  of  obtaining  this  Corn  is  in 
exchange  for  goods  or  money.  From  the  Supreme 
Council  of  National  Economics — the  controllers  of  all 
Russian  industries — the  Food  Control  Department  re- 
ceives goods,  already  valued  and  inventoried,  which 
are  distributed  by  its  local  organs  through  the  co- 
operative societies  among  the  peasants  in  exchange  for 
corn.  In  1918  i^  billions  of  roubles'  worth  of  goods 
were  distributed  in  this  way  at  fixed  prices.  For  the 
control  of  the  apparatus  of  Food  Supply  there  exists  a 
Traveling  Labor  Section,  consisting  of  300  workers, 
chosen  by  the  various  Professional  Alliances. 

Results  of  the  System  of  Food  Control. — From 
November  191 7  to  August  191 8  the  apparatus  of  the 
Commissariat  was  not  yet  perfected,  and  only  30  mil- 


72  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

lion  poods  of  corn  could  be  stocked,  an  amount  repre- 
senting about  one-tenth  of  the  needs  for  the  same 
period.  But  from  August  191 8  to  August  19 19  the 
Department  had  already  been  able  to  secure  108  mil- 
lion poods,  or  about  40  per  cent,  of  the  needs,  which 
for  the  period  were  about  225  million  poods  (the  pood 
is  36  English  lb.). 

None  of  these  108  million  poods  of  corn  was  pur- 
chased under  duress.  The  presence  of  a  detachment 
of  the  requisitioning  army  mentioned  above  was 
always  sufficient  to  cause  sales  to  proceed  smoothly, 
though  when  these  detachments  were  not  present  the 
quantities  of  corn  sold  by  the  peasants  would  be 
smaller  than  their  legal  due.  The  only  requisitions 
actually  made  were  from  private  persons  who  were 
removing  by  rail,  speculatively,  larger  quantities  of 
flour  than  was  allowed. 

The  extraordinary  way  in  which  the  well-to-do  Rus- 
sian peasant,  in  spite  of  his  ignorance  and  lack  of 
culture,  responds  to  the  varying  political  situation  is 
seen  in  the  fact  that  when  the  position  on  the  war 
fronts  grows  worse  or  serious  these  peasants  all  over 
the  interior  deliver  less.  They  look  upon  Koltchak  as 
meaning  for  them  a  free  speculative  market,  and  hold 
back  their  stocks  hoping  for  high  prices.  On  the  tak- 
ing of  Tcheliabinsk  from  Koltchak,  on  the  other  hand, 
food  stocks  came  in  at  once. 

Field  of  Operations. — These  108  million  poods 
stocked  between  August  1918-August  191 9  were  got 
from  a  territory  on  which  only  eight  governments,  and 
those  the  least  productive,  raise  corn.     From  those 


BOLSHEVIK  FOOD  CONTROL  73 

eight  governments  in  pre-war  times  statistics  show  that 
only  60  million  poods  of  corn  were  exported  yearly  by 
private  persons,  while  from  the  same  provinces  be- 
tween January  191 7  and  July  191 8  (a  period  covering 
the  last  months  of  Tsarism)  75  million  poods  were 
drawn.  But  the  Soviet  Government  from  January 
19 1 9- July  1919  got  46  million  poods  of  corn  from 
them — a  great  advance.  Of  course,  during  the  past 
year  there  has  been  an  absolute  deficiency  in  the  return 
of  corn  for  the  whole  territory  held  by  the  Soviet,  not 
including  Ukrainia,  where  no  stocks  were  made.  It  is 
estimated  at  40  million  poods.  Further,  the  108  mil- 
lion poods  of  corn  obtained  represent  only  48  per  cent, 
of  the  available  surplus,  the  remaining  52  per  cent, 
being  hidden  or  used  for  purposes  of  speculation.  The 
Food  Control  has  therefore  only  been  able  to  alleviate, 
not  to  satisfy,  the  needs  of  the  population  for  bread, 
and  it  was  natural  that  the  Professional  Alliances 
should  call  for  preferential  treatment  of  the  workers 
in  the  provision  of  food,  since  moneyed  non-workers 
could  buy  at  speculative  rates.  And  it  was  only  after 
the  evidence  of  this  that  the  famous  categories — classes 
for  food  distribution — were  drawn  up.  But  the  experi- 
ences of  191 8-19 1 9  show  that  the  peasants  are  already 
considering  the  delivery  of  corn  as  a  duty,  they  are 
becoming  accustomed  to  the  new  regime,  and  the 
realization  of  the  present  harvest  will  take  place  under 
more  favorable  conditions.  These  arise  partly  from 
the  conviction  of  the  peasants  that  Koltchak  will  not 
be  able  to  provide  them  with  a  speculative  market, 
partly  from  the  fact  that  the  Soviet  Government  will 


74  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

be  purchasing  over  a  larger  territory — always  except- 
ing Ukrainia.  The  Red  Army,  in  defeating  Koltchak, 
has  set  free  the  provinces  of  Samara,  Saratof,  Oren- 
burg, Ufa,  and  partly  Ouralsk,  which  were  formerly 
occupied,  but  from  which  purchases  can  now  be  made. 

In  fact,  could  the  whole  national  surplus  be  secured, 
the  Soviet  Government  would  have  a  surplus  of  some- 
where about  30  million  poods  over  its  needs.  And 
even  if  in  purchasing  it  secures  no  more  than  its  previ- 
ous proportional  rates,  it  will  get  from  250-300  million 
poods  of  corn,  and  the  needs  of  the  country  will  be 
satisfied. 

The  Categories. — Soldiers  are  outside  the  cate- 
gories altogether.  The  men  of  the  "  Red  "  armies  at 
the  front  receive  1^/2  lb.  of  bread  daily  (600  grammes), 
when  in  the  rear  i  lb.  daily. 

The  First  Category  consists  of  workers,  the  heads 
of  departments  and  all  responsible  workers;  these  re- 
ceive Yz  lb.  of  bread  daily  (200  grammes).  This  was 
changed  when  I  was  there  to  ^  lb.  daily. 

The  Second  Category  comprises  all  Soviet  employes, 
who  receive  %  lb.  daily  (loo  grammes).  Changed  to 
J^lb. 

The  Third  Category  is  for  non-workers.  Their  por- 
tion is  Ys,  lb.  daily  (50  grammes).    Changed  to  Ya  lb. 

Children  up  to  the  age  of  Sixteen  Years,  quite  ir- 
respective of  any  other  consideration,  are  given  ^  lb. 
of  bread  daily,  free  of  charge.  There  have  been  times 
when  no  bread  could  be  given  out.  And  even  this  July, 
owing  to  the  breakdown  of  a  large  mill,  there  were  two 
weeks  when  in  some  districts  of  Moscow  no  bread 


BOLSHEVIK  FOOD  CONTROL  75 

could  be  distributed,  though  the  smaller  mills  provided 
sufficient  for  some  of  the  proletarian  districts.  In 
Petrograd  there  has  been  no  discontinuance.  In  ad- 
dition to  the  special  regulations  for  children,  the 
families  of  "Red"  soldiers  will  receive  food  as  in 
the  first  category,  and  some  things  will  be  gratuitous. 
While,  as  the  rouble  has  undergone  steady  deprecia- 
tion, in  buying  from  the  peasants  the  former  price  of 
corn  which  was  i8  roubles  a  pood  was  on  August  12 
advanced  to  60  roubles,  though  the  selling  price  for 
bread  will  remain  as  before. 

Articles  under  Control  are  bread,  sugar,  salt,  fish, 
butter  both  vegetable  and  animal,  meat,  eggs,  tobacco, 
matches,  tea,  coffee,  and  sweetmeats.  Textile  fabrics, 
ready-made  clothes,  shoes,  oils  for  burning.  All  these 
are  distributed  on  coupons,  and  on  the  first  list  all  from 
bread  down  to  eggs,  inclusively,  retain  a  fixed  price  for 
the  whole  year. 

The  Actual  State  Monopolies  are  at  present  meat, 
salted  fish,  salt,  sugar,  tea,  and  bread.  Other  products 
are  being  purchased  by  the  State,  and  at  the  same  time, 
with  the  permission  of  the  Food  Control  Department, 
by  co-operative  organizations.  It  is  intended  to  extend 
the  State  monopoly  to  potatoes  and  all  kinds  of  fats  in 
t'he  autumn.  "  It  is  important  that  the  policy  of  Food 
Control  should  coincide  with  the  communistic  pro- 
gram, and  should  serve  as  a  sound  economic  basis  for 
the  Red  Republic.  But,  it  must  be  observed,  that  as 
a  result  of  the  world-conflagration  as  affecting  Russia, 
no  other  policy  would  secure  to  the  working  masses 
even  their  minimum  needs.     Ukrainia  furnishes  an 


76  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

example.  The  Food  Commissariats  of  Ukrainia  in- 
dulged in  a  policy  of  compromise,  tolerating  the  free 
purchase  of  corn  in  a  zone  of  50  versts  round  the  cities 
of  Kharkov,  Kieff,  and  Ekaterinoslav.  As  a  conse- 
quence they  were  able  to  purchase  in  six  months  in 
the  whole  Ukrainia  under  Soviet  rule  only  five  million 
poods  of  corn,  and  they  were  unable  to  supply  a  suffi- 
cient minimum  ration  to  the  workers  of  the  three  towns 
and  the  miners  of  the  Donetz  basin.  Through  this  the 
powers  of  resistance  to  Denikin  of  these  workers  were 
lowered.  It  is  now  agreed  by  the  Ukrainian  Govern- 
ment that  any  purchases  made  in  future  will  be  made 
on  the  plan  adopted  in  the  Great  Russian  Soviet  Re- 
public. Finally,  said  Svidersky,  a  complete  and  satis- 
factory solution  of  the  food  problem — a  full  supply  of 
bread  and  fats — will  only  be  possible  when  the  victory 
over  Koltchak  and  Denikin  is  complete." 


IX 

TRANSPORT:  A  VITAL  NERVE  OF  RUSSIA 

Recent  events  in  England  must  have  convinced  even 
the  most  unreflecting  observer  that  the  life  of  the  coun- 
try depends  on  these  two  things,  transport  and  food 
supply,  and  that  on  the  functioning  of  the  first  the 
success  of  the  second  largely  hangs.  It  is  still  more 
true  of  a  country  like  Russia,  and  to-day  truer  than 
ever.  With  masses  of  people  in  the  large  towns,  while 
the  food-producing  districts  are  enormous  distances 
away,  with  many  parts  in  north  and  west  unable  even 
in  normal  times  to  supply  their  own  wants  in  food,  it 
can  readily  be  imagined  that  the  effective  working 
of  the  transport  system  was  the  question  above  all 
others  for  the  Bolsheviks.  If  that  failed,  then  all 
failed. 

From  the  first  moment  that  I  got  into  Russia  I  set 
myself  to  observe  as  closely  as  possible  the  working 
of  the  railway  system  as  I  passed  through,  and  I  con- 
tinued the  observation  on  the  expeditions  I  made  out 
of  Moscow.  In  Moscow  itself  I  sought  out  the  Com- 
missariat for  Transport  and  questioned  him  closely  on 
the  condition  of  his  department,  his  difficulties,  and,  if 
any,  his  success.  As  he  is  a  man  of  an  unusual  t5^e  I 
got  a  frank  discussion  of  the  question. 

The  Great  War  had  completely  disorganized  the 

77 


78  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

Russian  railway  system.  Apart  from  the  actual  waste 
which  war  always  causes  there  was  the  working  of  the 
locomotives  till  the  last  ounce  of  their  effectiveness  was 
exhausted,  the  absence  of  repairs,  and  the  lack  of  spare 
parts,  for  Russia  relied  largely  on  her  Western  neigh- 
bors and  supplies  were  stopped.  To  these  must  be 
added  the  loss  by  destruction  and  damage  of  wagons. 
The  director  of  the  Dviegatl  Wagon  Works  at  Reval, 
an  establishment  employing  in  normal  times  some 
5,000  men  and  working  almost  entirely  for  the  Russian 
market,  told  me  that  he  estimated  the  loss  of  wagons 
by  Russia  during  the  war  at  600,000.  If  all  these 
things  be  added  together,  a  picture  can  be  formed  of 
the  damaged,  exhausted,  and  destroyed  condition  of 
railway  transport  in  Russia  at  the  March  Revolution, 
1917. 

On  top  of  the  condition  I  have  described  there  was 
added,  as  intervention  in  Russian  affairs  grew  pro- 
nounced and  a  ring  of  enemies  formed  around  the 
country,  a  further  difficulty  in  the  absence  of  fuel. 
The  Donetz  basin  in  the  south,  the  great  source  of 
coal,  was  cut  off;  so  was  Baku,  from  which  they  drew 
their  oil.  Motor  transport,  as  second  string,  was  there- 
fore impossible,  and  indeed  it  is  reduced  to  the  strict 
necessities  of  official  locomotion,  no  private  motor- 
driven  vehicle  being  allowed. 

Instead  of  coal  or  oil  or  petrol  as  combustible,  only 
wood  is  used,  with  the  double  disadvantage  of  the 
difficulty  of  procuring  it  and  bringing  it  to  the  spot 
where  it  is  wanted,  and  of  the  lessening  of  the  effective 
power  of  the  engines  that  burn  it. 


TRANSPORT  IN  SOVIET  RUSSIA         79 

Apart  from  the  railway  and  motors  there  remains 
only  horse  transport.  And,  to  anyone  who  knows  the 
condition  of  Russian  roads  and  the  distances  to  be 
traveled,  any  question  of  horse  transport  except  for 
short  stages  from  the  towns  is  absurd.  Besides  the 
ordinary  movement  of  civilian  travelers,  which  is  by 
no  means  stopped,  there  is  the  transport  of  food,  the 
supply  of  raw  materials  to  the  factories  and  the  move- 
ment of  goods  when  made,  the  furnishing  of  the  towns 
with  wood  fuel,  and,  above  all,  the  colossal  military 
transport  of  men,  munitions,  food,  to  all  points  of  the 
compass,  and  the  necessity  of  transporting  the  debris 
of  war,  wounded  men,  hospital  trains — all  the  para- 
phernalia of  a  great  war  on  top  of  the  urgent  necessities 
of  the  civilian  population,  to  be  served  by  a  depleted 
and  exhausted  railway  system.  The  problem  was  ter- 
rific, and  could  only  be  faced,  not  to  say  solved,  by 
someone  of  colossal  energy  who  was  willing  to  sacri- 
fice himself.  And  that  man  is  Leonid  Krassin.  There 
is  here  no  question  of  politics — it  is  simply  the  meeting 
of  a  great  need  by  the  skill  and  energy  of  a  competent 
man. 

He  is  a  Siberian,  in  the  prime  of  life,  about  forty- 
eight  years  old,  a  highly  skilled  technician  who  was 
formerly  the  general  manager  for  all  the  Russias  of 
the  Siemens-Schuckert  Company.  He  sparkles  with 
fiery  energy,  but  his  dark  hair  and  full  beard  are 
becoming  gray,  and  his  face  is  lined  with  the  tension 
under  which  he  lives  and  works.  And,  speaking  of 
him  purely  as  a  railway  administrator,  it  seems  to  me 
that  he  has  accomplished  the  almost  impossible.    For 


80  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

the  transport  system  works  and  replies  with  tolerable 
success  to  the  calls  upon  it.  The  military  require- 
ments, and  they  are  Immense,  are  met;  the  factories 
are  still  working,  partly,  either  in  the  manufacture  of 
munitions  or  in  their  own  speciality;  food  is  brought 
to  the  towns  and  is  despatched  to  the  furthest  corners 
of  the  country  in  the  quantities  that  are  possible;  and 
still,  though  depleted,  passenger  traffic  is  maintained. 
This  last  is,  naturally,  best  between  the  great  towns, 
and  one  train  each  way,  with  passenger  carriages,  is 
run  daily.  Apart  from  that,  people  ride  in  the  goods 
wagons,  traveling  just  as  the  soldiers  do.  Whether  it 
is  they  have  been  out  buying  food  or  doing  business, 
the  numbers  who  wish  to  travel  seem  greater  than  ever. 
Trains,  of  whatever  kind  they  may  be,  are  always 
packed  like  an  egg,  and  I  have  constantly  seen  people 
riding  on  the  steps,  platforms,  and  even,  with  true 
Russian  nonchalance,  on  the  tops  of  carriages.  But 
they  travel. 

The  permanent  way  as  I  saw  it  in  the  west  and  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Moscow  is  in  good  condition,  like- 
wise the  stations,  though  I  saw  some  which  bore  the 
marks  of  fighting;  carriages  are  kept  fairly  clean,  but 
there  is  little  lighting  at  night.  For  sleeping,  one  lies 
on  the  bare  seats,  or  the  bunks,  or,  as  nearly  always 
happens,  on  the  floor  in  carriage  or  corridor.  The 
immense  goods  wagons  are  used  for  transporting  sol- 
diers as  in  the  Great  War,  and  most  of  those  used  are 
in  fairly  good  condition,  others  roughly  mended,  and 
on  sidings  it  was  common  to  see  others  again  broken 
down. 


TRANSPORT  IN  SOVIET  RUSSIA  81 

Krassin's  difficulties  were  great.  In  the  early  days 
of  the  transformation  of  the  workmen's  conditions  it 
was  well-nigh  impossible  to  get  anything  done,  or  any 
line  to  function  properly.  But,  he  said,  he  refused  to 
take  the  post  unless  he  could  be  master.  And,  bit  by 
bit,  he  has  reduced  the  chaos  to  something  like  order, 
has  leashed  the  political  Commissaries  who  worked 
side  by  side  with  his  technicians  and  engineers,  and 
has,  in  some  measure,  provided  for  the  vital  wants  of 
the  country.  Alexinsky,  whom  I  interviewed  at  Reval, 
is  bitterly  anti-Bolshevik,  but  he  expressed  much  the 
same  opinion  of  the  service  in  the  north,  and  called 
Krassin  a  competent  administrator. 

This  vital  nerve,  though  not  healthy,  is  yet  not 
mortally  attacked. 


X 

EDUCATION  AND  ART  UNDER  THE 
BOLSHEVIKS 

As  one  whose  life  has  been  spent  largely  in  educational 
work  of  all  kinds,  I  was  naturally  keen  to  discover  the 
attitude  of  the  present  Russian  Government  towards 
education.  Russia  is  a  mass  of  illiteracy  and  ignorance 
greater  than  any  other  part  of  Europe,  and  on  the 
treatment  of  this  problem  the  j5nal  stability  of  any 
Government  will  depend.  The  importance  of  educa- 
tion was  fully  recognized  in  the  great  French  Revolu- 
tion, and  I  wondered  to  what  extent  the  leaders  of  this 
last  Revolution  had  realized  the  deadly  seriousness  of 
the  issue.  Accordingly  I  took  an  early  opportunity  of 
seeking  out  Lunacharsky,  the  Commissary  for  Educa- 
tion, and  followed  this  by  talking  on  more  than  one 
occasion  with  Professor  Pokrovsky,  the  historian,  who 
is  Assistant  Commissary. 

Lunacharsky  is  one  of  the  few  Commissaries  who 
live  in  the  Kremlin,  and  I  waited  for  him  in  what 
was  a  veritable  king's  ante-chamber,  with  its  stately 
ornamentation  and  furniture,  and — a  sign  of  the  times 
— a  woman  clerk  with  a  t)^ewriter.  He  is  a  man  of 
middle  age  (most  of  the  Commissaries  seem  to  be  verg- 
ing on  the  fifties),  dark  in  hair  and  complexion,  ex- 
tremely energetic,  and,  as  I  soon  discovered,  full  of 

82 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  EDUCATION  83 

enthusiasm  for  his  work.  It  is  something  novel  to 
discover  an  educational  director  who  retains  a  con- 
tagious enthusiasm  for  the  matter  of  his  department, 
with  a  wide  vision  of  its  possibilities,  and  who  has  at 
the  same  time  a  certain  practical  skill  in  administra- 
tion. I  ought  to  add  that  Lunacharsky  is  also,  among 
a  crowd  of  practised  speakers,  one  of  the  best  and  most 
persuasive  Bolshevik  orators,  no  mean  additional 
qualification  for  the  task  set  him. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  at  all  that  the  Bolsheviks 
are  fully  aware  of  the  seriousness  of  the  Russian  edu- 
cational problem  and  of  its  importance  for  their  ideas, 
system,  and  Hfe.  They  have  tackled  it  with  a  large- 
ness of  vision  that  is  striking.  They  are  aiming  at 
removing  the  illiteracy  of  the  peasants  and  bringing 
the  folk-school  into  direct  contact  with  village  life,  at 
providing  classes  and  courses  in  technical  and  artistic 
instruction  for  the  workers,  at  the  foundation  of  a 
popular  university  system  which  will,  if  the  former 
universities  hold  aloof,  do  to  a  large  extent  what  these 
should  have  done,  at  cherishing  the  old  schools  of  ar- 
tistic culture  in  ballet,  theater,  and  painting — in  a 
word,  at  meeting  what  seems  to  be  springing  up  in 
Russia  to-day,  a  wave  of  intense  desire  for  instruction 
of  all  kinds,  which,  if  carefully  treated,  may  produce 
results  of  the  very  first  value  for  Russia  and  for  the 
world  at  large.  Strange  as  it  may  appear,  it  is  recog- 
nized that  your  ignorant  citizen  is  a  national  danger, 
and  that  one  of  the  first  duties  of  the  State  is  to  help 
in  removing  his  ignorance. 

In  191 1  I  was  in  Moscow  visiting  educational  insti- 


84  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

tutions,  and,  indeed,  one  Zemstvo  school  in  a  neighbor- 
ing village  still  contains  English  pictures  which  I  sent 
as  a  memento  of  my  visit.  While  there  I  discovered 
that  a  society  which  had  been  formed  for  the  purpose 
of  assisting  the  scholars  of  the  village  schools  with 
simple,  decent  reading-books  and  help  in  the  teaching 
of  arithmetic,  all  at  the  society's  expense,  had  just  been 
suppressed,  and  its  members  were  subjected  to  every 
form  of  vilification  and  persecution,  public  and  private, 
that  it  is  possible  to  conceive.  A  further  effort  to 
establish  a  club-house  and  library,  to  which  village 
teachers  could  come  in  their  holidays  and  study  and 
improve  their  knowledge  of  town  life,  was  struggling 
against  the  opposition  of  the  authorities.  As  between 
191 1  and  1 9 19,  the  honors  are  therefore  with  the 
Bolsheviks. 

Money  has  been  voted  freely.  The  six  months' 
Budget  seemed  colossal  till  the  buying  power  of  the 
rouble  was  considered,  but  even  then  it  was  very  large, 
and  provided  amply  for  the  demands  of  the  Commis- 
sariat. The  first  practical  step  was  in  the  direction  of 
village  education.  And  here  sound  sense  led  the  opera- 
tions. Efforts  were  made  to  bring  the  peasants  them- 
selves into  the  educational  movement,  to  catch  and 
keep  their  interest.  For  this  the  school  was  made  into 
a  "working  school,"  in  which,  in  addition  to  the  in- 
struction in  the  processes  of  reading,  writing,  and 
arithmetic,  the  school  work  was  brought  into  relation 
with  all  the  operations  of  village  life.  What  that 
means  is  best  understood  by  those  who  have  lived  in 
the  villages  and  have  seen  the  multiplicity  of  opera- 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  EDUCATION  85 

tions  which  villagers,  who  have  largely  to  suffice  for 
their  own  needs,  have  to  perform.  Besides  agricultural 
concerns  they  must  be  expert  in  woodwork,  ironwork, 
the  growth  and  preparation  of  their  own  flax  and  wool, 
spinning  and  weaving,  and  other  things. 

The  new  "  working  school "  teaches  and  helps  in 
all  these,  besides  concerning  itself  with  gardening  and 
farming,  and  it  can  be  easily  imagined  that,  however 
slowly,  the  peasants  are  becoming  interested  in  an  in- 
stitution from  which  they  gain  so  much.  The  best 
proof  is  in  the  many  hundreds  of  school  buildings 
which  have  been  recently  built  by  the  peasants  them- 
selves, and  the  best  guarantee  for  the  continued  ef- 
fective progress  of  the  improvement  is  in  the  admirable 
provision  made  in  Moscow  for  the  training  of  the 
teachers  for  these  "  working  schools." 

In  the  Ekaterinsky  Square  is  a  huge  building,  for- 
merly a  boarding  school  for  girls  of  rich  families.  It 
has  a  park,  and  gardens  of  many  acres  in  extent.  Here 
are  collected  300  peasant  instructors,  selected  by  local 
Soviets  from  all  the  corners  of  Russia.  They  live  in 
the  building,  which  is  large  enough  to  supply  living- 
rooms,  classrooms,  workshops,  living  and  class  room 
space  for  a  fairly  big  school  of  children  of  both  sexes, 
who  are  the  experimental  body.  The  directors,  a 
woman  and  a  man,  are  educators  of  proved  ability, 
.great  human  sympathy,  and  unbounded  enthusiasm. 
All  the  operations  of  the  working  school  are  taught 
theoretically  and  carried  out  practically  in  the  work- 
shops, the  power  of  imparting  the  instruction  being 
gained  by  practice  with  the  children.    The  necessary 


86  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

house  functions  and  the  cultivation  of  the  immense 
garden,  the  growth  and  improvement  of  seeds  and 
types  of  plants,  are  carried  out  by  the  peasant  students 
and  the  children  solely. 

The  result  is  a  happy  activity  that  made  me  almost 
envious.  The  value  of  it  must  be  seen  from  the  fact 
that,  their  course  finished,  these  instructors  depart  to 
their  own  villages  to  spread  the  work.  The  children 
were  mostly  from  the  working  class.  At  first  there  had 
been  some  difficulty,  but  when  I  was  there  (I  went  a 
second  time  alone  for  a  long  visit)  all  was  harmonious. 
The  children  were  in  the  very  best  of  health  and  con- 
dition, their  behavior  was  admirable,  and  their  intelli- 
gence developing  fast. 

One  other  thing  is  occurring  in  this  school  which  was 
hardly  in  the  original  program.  I  saw  an  instance,  in 
the  section  of  the  workshops  devoted  to  art,  of  unsus- 
pected talent  having  been  discovered  among  these 
peasants.  And  it  may  well  happen  that  in  this  way 
talent  that  would  otherwise  remain  hidden  and  lost 
may  be  discovered  and  trained  for  the  benefit  of 
Russia. 

Professor  Pokrovsky,  in  talking  of  these  peasant 
students,  paid  them  a  high  tribute.  He  said:  "  Among 
all  my  audiences  I  reckon  them  to  be  the  very  best." 

For  town  and  factory  workers  classes  and  courses 
in  technical  subjects  and  art  have  been  set  up.  There 
is  a  great  demand  for  them,  and  to  supply  accommo- 
dation use  has  been  made  of  large  houses  and  the  halls 
of  the  great  restaurants  and  clubs  which  have  been 
commandeered.    Music  and  dramatics  also  are  studied. 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  EDUCATION  87 

and  as  there  is  a  great  upspringing  of  taste  for  the 
theater,  the  numbers  of  entries  in  Moscow  and  Petro- 
grad  are  surprisingly  large.  The  age  of  beginning 
work  is  sixteen,  and  then  the  working  day  is  only  six 
hours  till  the  age  of  eighteen,  the  remaining  two  hours 
being  spent  in  study.  Later  it  is  hoped  to  raise  the  age 
of  beginning  to  eighteen.  But  in  the  present  dearth  of 
workpeople  permission  has  been  granted  for  work  to 
begin  at  fourteen  for  four  hours  a  day,  on  condition 
that  the  remaining  four  hours  of  a  working  day  are 
spent  in  these  classes.  It  these  regulations  I  can 
see  nothing  but  a  good  intention  towards  the 
youth  of  Russia  and  a  careful  safeguard  against  any 
abuse. 

Conferences  of  teachers  are  held,  and  I  attended 
one  of  country  teachers  in  Moscow.  They  were  of 
all  ages  and  both  sexes,  well  dressed  and  ill  dressed, 
civilians  and  soldiers,  one  in  uniform  with  one  foot 
bandaged  and  the  other  bare — hundreds  of  them,  met 
to  discuss  the  share  the  teachers  would  take  in  mobili- 
zation, and  whether  they  would  not  undertake  the 
raising  of  the  necessary  percentage  themselves.  It 
was  a  valuable  instance  of  the  way  in  which  the  Gov- 
ernment treats  openly  and  frankly  with  the  teaching 
body,  as  well  as  an  indication  of  their  estimate  of  the 
value  of  teachers  to  the  new  regime. 

Lenin,  whom  I  saw  then  for  the  first  time,  came 
unattended  to  the  conference,  and  spoke  for  an  hour 
on  the  duty  of  each  to  work  individually  for  the  up- 
lifting of  Russia.  His  presence  there  was  a  criterion  of 
the  estimate  placed  on  educative  work. 


88  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

If  there  is  little  to  be  said  of  the  middle-class  schools, 
the  secondary  system,  it  should  be  remembered  that 
the  Soviet  Republic  is  a  Workers'  Republic,  and  that 
its  Government  is  little  likely  to  spend  thought  on 
institutions  which  are,  as  they  would  say,  bourgeois 
affairs.  And  the  crying  need  of  Russia  is,  as  they 
recognize,  the  removal  of  the  illiteracy  of  the  lower 
population. 

An  educational  expert  can  easily  pick  holes  in 
Lunacharsky's  schemes.  The  courses  and  programs 
are  summary;  the  accommodation  and  equipment  are 
often  more  summary  still.  But  the  Russian  masses  are 
for  all  practical  purposes  a  new  people  requiring  new 
methods,  and  the  summary  nature  of  the  equipment 
does  not  trouble  a  Russian.  Grant  that,  and  I  think 
my  estimate  of  the  work  follows  logically:  that  there 
is  here  a  realization  of  the  danger  of  the  dense  igno- 
rance of  the  millions  of  peasants;  that  with  clear 
vision  of  the  possibilities  a  great  effort,  new  in  some 
of  its  phases,  is  being  made  to  remove  it,  and  already 
with  some  success.  As  time  goes  on  and  mistakes 
are  rectified,  that  success  will  increase.  The  work 
has  no  specifically  Bolshevik  tendency;  numbers  of  the 
teachers  are  non-Communist,  but  the  percentage  of 
those  who  accept  the  Bolshevik  creed,  already  large, 
grows,  in  consequence  of  the  work,  steadily  greater, 
and  who  is  to  say  where  this  movement  will  end? 

But  this  is  not  the  whole  of  the  work  of  the  Com- 
missariat of  Education.  The  usual  picture  of  a 
socialistic  community  is  one  of  gray,  dull  quality, 
devoid  of  all  the  glow  and  color  that  come  from  art. 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  EDUCATION  89 

The  reality,  so  far  as  Bolshevist  Russia  is  concerned, 
is  quite  the  opposite.  The  four  great  art  schools,  two 
in  Petrograd  and  two  in  Moscow,  have  been  national- 
ized, and  students  choose  their  own  professors.  The 
classes  function,  with  a  great  impetus  given  to  the 
teaching  of  the  most  modern  painters,  and  results  at 
which  Lunacharsky  smiled  a  little.  But  the  class  work 
would  seem  only  to  have  received  a  tonic  shock  from 
the  change,  and  ultra-modern  forms  of  expression  will 
find  their  own  level.  To  students  was  given  the  work 
of  preparing  the  town  decorations  for  the  public  fetes, 
and  here  again  the  taste  of  the  day  after  to-morrow 
seemed  to  be  in  the  ascendant  for  the  time  being. 
The  true  estimate  seems  to  be  that  this  form  of  art, 
instead  of  being  dead,  is  more  lively  than  ever,  and 
that  exaggerated  forms  of  expression  do  but  reflect  the 
great  mental  and  spiritual  turmoil  caused  by  the  Revo- 
lution. 

Theaters  are  nationalized,  and  a  special  committee 
of  the  Commissariat,  as  well  as  a  sub-committee  of  the 
Moscow  Soviet,  look  after  them.  But  the  famous 
ballet  and  the  even  more  famous  Art  Theater  of 
Moscow  have  been  left  to  themselves  and  function  as 
before.  Drama,  vaudeville,  ballet,  opera  go  on,  the 
chief  difference  being  that  audiences  are  changed. 
They  are  composed  of  people  who  go  for  the  love 
of  the  theater,  not  as  a  boring  social  convention.  In 
the  distribution  of  tickets  made  through  the  workers' 
committees  workers  have  the  best  chance,  and  with  im- 
proved economic  conditions  and  greater  leisure  they 
avail  themselves  of  the  opportunity  with  a  will. 


90  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

The  Moscow  Soviet  maintains  concerts  of  admirable 
chamber  music  at  small  cost,  and  audiences  are  large. 
But  their  most  striking  effort  is  the  provision  of  seven 
theaters,  in  gardens  and  elsewhere,  where  on  Sunday 
afternoons  special  performances  are  given  free  for  chil- 
dren only.  I  went  to  one  in  the  Zoological  Gardens, 
where  I  saw  some  2,000  children  of  all  ages  up  to 
fourteen  intensely  interested  in  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin." 
I  went  among  them  specially  to  note  their  appearance 
and  condition,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  they 
would  compare  favorably  with  a  similar  audience  of 
London  children.  One  thing  should  be  noted.  Art 
knows  no  politics,  and  the  great  artists,  actors,  and 
singers  work  as  before,  with  the  change,  as  repeated 
often  to  me  by  very  different  people,  that  they  are  de- 
lighted with  the  appreciation  and  enthusiasm  of  their 
present  audiences,  and  prefer  them. 

Russia  is  rich  in  great  collections  of  treasures  of 
art.  My  heart  had  sunk  when,  with  my  head  full  of 
Western  stories,  I  thought  of  what  might  have  hap- 
pened to  them.  An  interview  restored  my  equanimity. 
The  treasures  of  the  Alexander  and  the  Hermitage 
Museums  had  been  carefully  packed  and  transported 
to  Moscow  for  safety.  They  would  have  been  housed 
there,  but  as  they  belong  to  Petrograd,  it  was  decided 
not  to  rob  that  city  of  its  beautiful  property,  but  to 
restore  them  when  conditions  favored.  The  Tretia- 
kovsky  Gallery  in  Moscow  is  richer  than  ever,  and 
when  I  was  there  was  crowded  with  visitors,  largely 
soldiers,  who  were  being  taken  round  by  practised 
guides.    Other  collections  had  been  formed  from  the 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  EDUCATION  91 

treasures  in  private  houses,  and  the  greatest  care  was 
taken  of  them.  Lastly,  the  old  palaces  were  retained 
as  museums  of  architecture,  decoration,  and  furniture; 
the  most  elaborate  care  had  been  spent  on  them,  and 
they  had  been  visited  by  vast  crowds. 

I  had  to  confess  that  Bolshevist  rule,  so  far  from 
meaning  the  death  of  art,  had  produced  conditions 
that  are  likely  to  stimulate  it,  and  the  attitude  towards 
it  is  best  expressed  in  a  phrase  let  fall  by  Lunacharsky 
when  talking  of  the  theaters,  the  ballet,  and  the  collec- 
tions— "  We  have  here  the  materials  of  a  splendid  cul- 
ture which  we  would  not  willingly  see  die." 


XI 

BOLSHEVIK  JUDICIAL  SYSTEM 

Charges  against  the  Bolshevik  system  of  justice  (or 
injustice)  had  been  so  pronounced  that  I  found  it  im- 
possible to  believe  that  any  real  judicial  system  could 
exist.  And,  once  there  in  Russia,  I  made  a  determined 
effort  to  discover  the  facts — whether  there  were  any 
system,  the  form  in  which  it  had  crystallized,  and  the 
extent  to  which  it  functioned.  The  Extraordinary 
Commission,  of  which  so  much  has  been  heard,  excited 
my  curiosity  greatly. 

In  my  long  sitting  with  Kamenev,  the  President  of 
the  Moscow  Soviet,  I  had  discussed  the  Bolshevik 
judicial  system.  He  talked  freely  concerning  it,  and 
gave  me  a  detailed  description.  Indeed,  he  talked  so 
fully  that  at  the  end  he  turned  and  asked  why  I  had 
questioned  him  on  the  subject,  since  it  was  not  his 
department.  I  explained  that  I  had  come  to  him  with 
this  object  among  others,  and  that  I  was  grateful  for 
his  vivid  and  lucid  explanation.  I  was  more  grateful 
later  on,  for  going  to  see  the  Commissary  for  Justice, 
Kurski,  I  had  in  my  mind  and  in  my  notes  the 
Kamenev  conversation  to  act  as  a  control  on  what  I 
then  learned.  The  two  explanations  coincided,  with 
the  difference  that  the  head  of  the  Department  of  Jus- 

92 


BOLSHEVIK  JUDICIAL  SYSTEM  93 

tice    was    naturally    able    to    supply    details    which 
Kamenev  did  not  possess. 

Hegel's  cynical  remark  that  the  only  thing  we  learn 
from  history  is  that  people  do  not  learn  from  history 
is  not  quite  true  here.  The  Bolsheviks  have  a  system 
of  courts,  and  that  system  is  founded  on  what  they 
learned  of  the  practices  and  necessities  of  the  French 
Revolution.  They  have  two  tribunals:  one  a  People's 
Court  for  ordinary  civil  and  criminal  cases,  the  other 
the  Revolutionary  Tribunal  with  special  functions.  Of 
these,  only  the  People's  Court  is  intended  to  be  per- 
manent. There  is  a  temporary  third  court,  the  Ex- 
traordinary Commission,  charged  with  the  conduct  of 
cases  of  counter-revolution,  of  peculation,  sabotage, 
and  misuse  of  power  by  officials;  but  in  effect  its  main 
task  has  been  the  cases  of  counter-revolution. 

Material  and  formal  jurisdiction  in  Bolshevist 
Russia  is  best  explained  by  throwing  it  into  two 
periods,  the  first  during  the  months  of  November  and 
December,  191 7,  when  the  people's  judges  only  re- 
ceived general  directions,  according  to  which  judg- 
ments were  to  be  given.  And  during  that  period  the 
fundamental  State  laws  published  were  the  decree  that 
all  power  in  the  Russian  Republic  belongs  to  the 
Soviets;  another  decree  abolished  all  former  courts; 
another  fixed  the  working  day  at  eight  hours,  and  an- 
other related  to  marriage  and  divorce. 

The  second  period  began  in  191 8  with  the  detailed 
regulation  of  all  laws — e.g.  a  code  of  laws  relating 
to  family  relationship;  a  code  of  labor  laws;  a  code 
of  laws  concerning  the  people's  courts.     There  is 


94  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

nothing  haphazard  about  the  drawing  up  of  these 
codes.  Some  of  them  I  have  gone  through  and  found 
to  be  extremely  precise,  minutely  elaborated  docu- 
ments. The  labor  code,  e.g.,  had  been  drafted  first  by 
the  Professional  Alliances'  (Trades'  Unions),  then  dis- 
cussed by  the  Commissariat  of  Justice  and  the  Con- 
vention of  the  Soviets,  before  being  adopted.  It  had 
first  appeared  in  the  Regulations  of  Tariffs — i.e.  rates 
of  pay — regulations  which  represent  an  immense  labor 
in  classifying  and  grading  occupations  and  providing 
for  appropriate  rates  of  pay — a  practice  which  knocks 
on  the  head  the  idea  of  the  Soviet  Republic  as  a  place 
where  all  are  on  one  level,  receiving  one  and  the  same 
remuneration.  Indeed,  it  is  far  otherwise,  and  the 
minute  gradation  of  these  tariffs  is  one  of  the  sources 
of  labor  troubles;  they  are  too  fixed,  and  so  allow  no 
margin  for  the  vaguer  cases  where  one  grade  shades 
off  into  another.  There  would  seem  to  have  been 
necessity  for  the  code  of  regulations  concerning 
people's  courts,  seeing  that  some  4,000  of  them  func- 
tion in  Soviet  Russia;  each  district  has  from  three  to 
five  of  them.  In  Moscow  alone  there  are  fifty  or  fifty- 
two  people's  courts,  which  in  1918  dealt  with  some 
90,000  criminal  cases  and  with  a  further  list  of  40,000 
civil  cases.  The  maximum  penalty  which  they  can 
inflict  is  three  years'  imprisonment. 

The  revolutionary  tribunals  seem  to  have  gone 
through  two  similar  stages,  gradually  becoming  com- 
petent and  acting  under  specified  conditions.  But  at 
first  the  parallelism  which  existed  between  the  two 
kinds  of  courts  led  to  overlapping  of  function,  espe- 


BOLSHEVIK  JUDICIAL  SYSTEM  95 

dally  in  the  provinces.  When  the  Commissariat  of 
Justice  undertook  by  regulation  to  define  the  com- 
petency of  these  revolutionary  tribunals  it  limited  them 
to  the  fight  with  counter-revolution.  But  in  the  con- 
fusion which  existed  and  the  misunderstanding  of  their 
competency  they  did  not  deal  with  the  counter-revo- 
lution. It  was  this  failure  which  led  to  the  extension 
of  the  powers  and  of  the  field  of  the  Extraordinary 
Commission. 

This  Extraordinary  Commission,  about  which  and 
whose  head  so  much  has  been  written  and  said,  began 
to  function  at  once  after  the  Revolution  of  October- 
November,  191 7.  It  was  not  till  later  that  the  regu- 
lation was  passed  which  gave  to  the  revolutionary 
tribunals  alone  the  right  of  passing  capital  sentences. 
It  was  impossible  at  first  to  regulate  this  Commission, 
and  excesses  took  place;  many  death  sentences  were 
passed  by  its  Presidium.  It  was  the  desire  to  stop 
these  which  led  to  the  passing  of  the  regulations  limit- 
ing and  defining  the  powers  of  the  courts,  and  it  is 
particularly  stated  in  the  Code  of  February  191 9  that 
the  Extraordinary  Commission  has  no  right  of  passing 
death  sentences  except  in  the  case  of  the  taking  of 
armed  bandits  in  flagrante  delicto,  or  in  cases  of  an 
uprising  in  places  where  the  Commission  is  working. 
It  is  easily  conceivable  that  in  the  political  condition 
of  the  country  even  this  regulation  opens  the  door  to 
abuses,  and  in  the  hands  of  unscrupulous  men  could 
be  turned  into  an  engine  of  revolutionary  tyranny  and 
destruction. 

In  191 8  there  were  thirty- two  revolutionary  tri- 


96  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

bunals  at  work.  They  dealt  with  cases  of  counter- 
revolution, sabotage,  espionage,  peculation,  pogroms, 
bribery  and  forgery,  and  illegal  use  of  Soviet  docu- 
ments, in  number  more  than  12,000.  In  50  per  cent, 
of  the  cases  a  verdict  was  reached;  14  only  of  the 
verdicts  were  death  sentences;  the  rest  were  dismissals. 

Their  last  codes,  those  on  the  land  laws  and  on  in- 
heritance, which  has  been  practically  abolished,  they 
consider  themselves  to  be  their  most  important  legal 
move. 

From  the  estate  of  a  deceased  person  property  up 
to  the  value  of  10,000  roubles  is  allowed  to  pass  to 
his  relatives,  the  rest  lapses  to  the  State.  And  even 
here  care  is  exercised  that  the  inheritance  shall  pass 
in  the  first  instance  to  those  relatives  who  are  unable 
to  support  themselves,  or  are  only  partly  able.  But 
the  law  is  a  blow  at  inheritance  in  the  usual  sense. 

On  the  merits  or  demerits  of  the  Bolshevik  judicial 
system  I  offer  no  opinion.  My  information  was  not 
procured  solely  from  the  two  men  mentioned.  I 
'talked  on  the  subject  with  many  people  who  were 
quite  unsuspicious  of  my  motive,  and  I  looked  into 
their  codes  and  their  court  records,  which  can  be  pro- 
cured easily  in  Russia.  I  only  show  that  they  have  a 
system  which  has  been  the  work  of  legal  minds,  for 
there  are  jurists  as  well  as  professional  men  of  all 
kinds  among  the  leaders.  Its  chief  quality  would  seem 
to  be  a  certain  simplicity.  By  a  stroke  of  irony  the 
people's  courts  aim  not  only  at  punishment  of  evil 
but  also  at  reformation  of  the  wrong-doer!  A  first 
offender  is  set  free  on  condition  that  he  must  not  fall 


BOLSHEVIK  JUDICIAL  SYSTEM  97 

again.  Should  he  do  so,  he  pays  the  penalty  of  his 
second  offense  together  with  that  to  which  his  first 
crime  rendered  him  liable. 

As  for  the  two  temporary  tribunals,  they  are  justi- 
fied on  the  ground  of  necessity.  They  say  that  as  they, 
the  Bolsheviks,  were  working  for  the  materialization 
of  their  ideals,  they  had  to  have  in  their  hands  a 
machine  for  counteracting  their  enemies.  Hence,  on 
the  French  model,  the  revolutionary  tribunals;  hence 
the  Extraordinary  Commission.  That  explains,  but 
does  not  condone,  the  excesses  to  which  the  formation 
of  these  courts  led.  That  there  were  excesses  is  proved 
by  the  care  with  which  the  Bolsheviks  have  tried  since 
to  regulate  the  powers  and  control  the  functions  of 
these  courts.  For  the  final  assessment  of  responsibility 
in  the  matter  the  world  must  wait  for  the  future  his- 
torian of  the  Russian  Revolution  who  shall  have  the 
full  evidence  in  his  hands. 


XII 
BOLSHEVISM  AND  THE  PEOPLE'S  HEALTH 

All  who  knew  Russia  in  Tsaristic  times  were  quite 
well  aware  of  the  evil  condition  into  which  the  health 
of  the  mass  of  the  population  had  fallen.  The  bureau- 
cracy paid  little  attention  to  the  needs  of  public 
hygiene,  and  the  almost  invincible  ignorance  of  the 
peasants  made  them  bitterly  hostile  to  any  attempts 
at  improvement  by  philanthropic  individuals.  Their 
housing  also  was  extremely  bad,  especially  in  the  towns 
which  were  industrialized  and  which  contained  a  large 
proletariat  population.  This  last  point  is  one  that 
has  struck  the  Commissariats  of  Labor,  Industries,  and 
the  Trades'  Unions  with  peculiar  force,  and  one  part 
of  their  duties  is  the  improvement  of  the  conditions 
under  which  the  working  population  lives.  In  the 
matter  of  health  the  Bolsheviks  show  that  they  ap- 
preciate fully  the  existing  conditions,  and  have  a  scien- 
tific forethought  of  the  dangers  which  lie  ahead  if  these 
conditions  are  allowed  to  continue. 

There  were  in  existence  under  the  old  regime  medi- 
cal departments  and  medical  attendance  for  the  well- 
to-do  and  officials,  and  quite  naturally  there  were 
medical  practitioners  in  the  country,  but  for  gen- 
eral national  hygiene  no  thought  whatever  was 
taken. 

98 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  NATIONAL  HYGIENE     99 

Under  the  Kerensky  Provisional  Government  a 
Medical  Council  was  created,  largely  a  consultative 
body  which  drew  up  plans,  but  so  little  of  practical 
value  was  done  that  the  Bolsheviks,  when  once  they 
were  able  to  turn  their  attention  to  the  subject,  had  a 
clear  field;  and  as  the  Soviet  Republic  is  a  Workers' 
Republic,  it  is  evident  that  the  major  part  of  their 
attention  would  be  directed  towards  the  improvement 
of  hygienic  conditions  and  the  provision  of  medical  ad- 
vice, treatment,  and  medicines  for  the  workers.  After 
considerable  trouble,  for  the  experimental  stage  lasted 
a  long  time,  the  whole  of  the  medical  services  in  the 
Soviet  Republic  have  been  brought  together  under 
pne  head  and  formed  into  something  which  corresponds 
roughly  to  the  British  Ministry  of  Health,  whose  chief 
is  Dr.  Semashko.  Under  him,  in  Moscow,  the  town 
has  been  divided  into  districts,  the  doctors  have  been 
largely  nationalized  and  apportioned  to  the  various  dis- 
tricts, hospitals  have  been  either  created  or  improved, 
special  clinics  set  up — ^polyclinics  also — while  the 
needs  of  mothers  and  of  children  have  received  the 
fullest  consideration,  and  ample  provision  for  them  is 
in  process  of  being  made. 

That  some  such  development  must  happen  one  can 
see  from  the  fact  that  the  principle  of  general  sick- 
insurance  had  been  accepted.  Under  that  every  citizen 
of  the  Soviet  Republic  has  the  right  to  demand  free 
medical  assistance  from  the  State,  and  to  get  free  medi- 
cine, treatment,  and  hospital  accommodation,  with — 
in  case  of  necessity — a  convalescent  period  in  a  health 
resort.    The  State,  therefore,  had  to  provide  that  the 


100  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

principle  could  be  carried  out  in  practice.  In  the 
maternity  department,  under  Dr.  Lebedev,  a  lady 
doctor,  the  most  elaborate  arrangements  have  been 
made  for  the  provision  of  accommodation  for  the 
mother  eight  weeks  before  the  birth  of  a  child  with 
a  corresponding  period  after  the  birth,  which  period 
can  be  extended,  if  necessity  arises,  until  the  child  is 
.weaned.  While  in  the  hospital  the  mother,  if  she  be 
a  workwoman,  is  still  paid,  the  care  bestowed  upon 
her  as  a  mother  being  a  gift  of  the  State. 

A  number  of  such  houses  are  already  functioning 
and  others  are  in  prospect,  the  difficulty  of  arranging 
for  the  full  practice  of  the  scheme  being  considerably 
increased  by  the  state  of  war. 

For  children  special  hospitals  again  are  to  be 
created,  but  one — a  heritage  of  former  times — is  in 
operation  in  the  south  of  Moscow.  I  visited  it,  and 
neither  in  this  country  nor  America  have  I  ever  seen 
a  hospital  better  arranged,  better  equipped,  or  better 
managed  for  its  particular  purpose.  Sick  children  can 
be  taken  there  and  left;  mothers  can,  in  infectious 
cases,  remain  with  their  children  if  necessary;  there 
is  a  clinic  to  which  some  hundreds  of  mothers  go  daily 
for  advice,  receiving  at  the  same  time  the  appropriate 
medicines,  and  in  some  cases  the  appropriate  food  for 
the  child;  a  hall  in  which  some  instruction  is  given  by 
the  doctors  to  audiences  of  mothers  in  the  management 
of  their  children,  with  an  extremely  interesting  and  in- 
structive set  of  diagrams  and  a  small  museum.  With 
all  this  there  is  also  a  special  department  for  the  recep- 
tion and  sterilization  of  milk,  which  is  given  out  to 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  NATIONAL  HYGIENE    101 

the  mothers  requiring  it.  On  this  question  of  milk 
Dr.  Lebedev  told  me  that  they  had  in  mind  the  erection 
of  a  central  station  which  should  receive  the  milk  from 
the  Soviet  farms,  sterilize  it,  and  distribute  it,  to  the 
number  of  very  many  thousands  of  portions  daily. 
At  present  this  sterilization  is  done  in  the  smaller  hos- 
pitals like  the  one  I  have  described.  In  the  huge 
building  where  this  maternity  department  of  the  Com- 
missariat of  Social  Maintenance  is  housed,  the  upper 
floor — an  admirable  hall  well  suited  for  the  purpose — 
has  been  adapted  for  a  permanent  exhibition  of  all 
matters  relating  to  the  birth,  food,  dressing,  treat- 
ment, and  exercise  of  young  children.  The  hall  had 
been  prepared,  the  installation  begun,  several  very 
good  artists  had  been  pressed  into  service  to  assist  in 
preparing  the  diagrammatic  illustrations  which  are 
necessary;  it  looked  to  me  that  when  finished  Moscow 
would  possess  a  permanent  hygienic  exhibition  capable 
of  indefinite  extension,  such  as  very  few  countries 
have. 

It  is  intended  that  the  same  kind  of  work  shall 
be  extended  to  the  provincial  towns.  In  the  mean- 
time efforts  are  being  made  to  get  committees  together, 
headed  by  properly  qualified  medical  men  and  women, 
in  the  various  towns  in  order  to  lead  the  way  to  the 
installation  of  houses,  and  provide  the  properly  quali- 
fied assistants  who  are  necessary.  This  is  wise,  for 
more  harm  than  good  would  be  done  by  the  employ- 
ment of  heterogeneous  people  in  a  matter  so  serious. 

This  Commissariat  of  Hygiene  or  of  National 
Health  is  already  doing  a  very  large  work,  for  the 


102  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

general  medical  services  of  Moscow  is  complete;  but 
its  programs  are  much  less  developed  than  those  of 
some  other  Commissariats;  it  has  to  go  slowly  because 
its  success  depends  entirely  on  a  trained  body  of  scien- 
tific people,  and  where  these  are  not  to  be  found  they 
have  to  be  provided.  The  service  has  a  further  draw- 
back in  the  great  scarcity  of  medicaments  in  Russia. 
These  have  invariably  been  imported  for  the  greater 
part  from  abroad,  very  largely  from  Germany.  The 
closing  of  the  frontiers  has  prevented  any  further  entry 
of  drugs,  and  the  shortage  is  so  serious  that  the  Rus- 
sians have  been  attempting  to  manufacture  some 
articles  for  themselves,  with  indifferent  success.  A 
considerable  amount  was  expended  in  smuggling  medi- 
cines from  Germany,  but  the  general  result  is  that  I 
have  among  my  memoranda  four  closely-t5Tped  large 
folios  of  the  drugs  which  are  in  immediate  great  re- 
quest, and  which  they  are  quite  unable  to  procure. 

On  the  whole  subject  one  can  say  that  the  unification 
of  the  services  has  produced  a  certain  simplicity  which 
helps  in  the  administration;  that  the  problem  of 
hygiene  is  fully  realized;  and  that  the  efforts  made  are 
already  successful  so  far  as  they  have  gone,  but  that 
a  vast  amount  remains  to  be  done  which  cannot  be 
undertaken  properly  until  conditions  are  altered. 


XIII 
BOLSHEVIK  FOOD  CONTROL 

Interview  with  Litvinoff 

Member  of  the  Collegium  of  Foreign  Affairs,  charged  with  the 
Western  Division,  Member  of  the  Commissariat  of  State 
Control. 

The  question  of  the  Control  of  the  Machinery  of  Gov- 
ernment had  been  intriguing  me.  The  usual  idea  in 
Western  Europe  is  that  in  the  Soviet  Republic  there 
can  be  no  control,  that  each  department  acts  as  a  law 
unto  itself,  with  anarchical  results.  The  opportunity 
of  a  long  journey  gave  me  chance  of  learning  from  a 
member  of  this  Bureau  that  the  reality  is  far  other- 
wise; that  there  is  in  full  action,  in  Russia,  a  system 
of  control,  completer,  more  insistent,  and  more  effec- 
tive than  in  any  other  country.  In  justice  to  the 
leaders  of  the  Soviet  Republic,  it  must  be  confessed 
that  they  do  not  shield  themselves,  no  official  is  spared, 
from  a  control  that  is  minuteness  personified,  as  will 
be  seen  from  the  following  exposition.  This  Bureau 
controls  finances  and  the  budget;  the  efficiency  of  de- 
partments; the  efficiency  of  their  acts;  and  it  has  the 
power  of  compelling  departments  to  improve  their 
work.    It  Can  stop  overlapping  or  duplication  of  work; 

103 


104  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

should  it  think  a  department  unnecessary,  it  can  sup- 
press it,  and  this  has  already  been  done. 

It  sees  that  the  decrees  (laws)  are  kept  by  officials. 
Should  it  find  that  an  official  is  not  working  properly, 
it  can  recommend  his  removal,  and  acts  as  prosecutor 
in  the  case  of  evil-doing  officials.  It  prevents  over- 
staffing  (I  thought  of  some  of  the  Ministries  set  up  in 
England  during  the  war),  and  it  sees  that  the  wages  of 
officials  are  paid  according  to  the  Tariffs.  Its  powers 
extend  to  all  departments,  to  the  Chief  Executive  Com- 
mittee, to  the  Commissaries  of  the  People  themselves 
— none  are  exempt  who  are  officials,  for  it  does  not 
concern  itself  with  private  persons.  But  for  officials 
and  officialdom  it  is  the  Supreme  Control. 

It  goes  even  further.  Every  departmental  bill  to  be 
presented  to  the  Council  of  People's  Commissaries 
must  be  agreed  to  by  the  Department  of  State  Con- 
trol, especially  if  it  is  a  Finance  Bill. 

The  department  is  subdivided  into — 

Distribution. — ^Largely  concerned  with  Food  Supply, 
Agriculture,  Railways,  Post,  etc.  At  the  head  of  these 
are  specialists  who  are  expert  in  the  business  of  their 
departments. 

Production. — Controlling  the  Supreme  Council  of 
National  Economics,  and  therefore  all  industries. 

Protection  of  Labor. — Supervising  Labor,  Hygiene, 
Rent,  Prisoners  of  War,  etc. 

Administration. — Controlling  the  local  Soviets;  the 
Commissariat  of  the  Council  of  the  People's  Com- 
missaries; the  Moscow  Soviet. 

From  which  it  can  be  seen  that  not  only  no  indi- 


BOLSHEVIK  STATE  CONTROL    105 

vidual  official,  but  no  individual  department  down  to 
the  far-away  local  Soviet,  can  escape  the  net  drawn  by 
this  Bureau  of  Control.  I  find  little  room  left  for  the 
dream  of  anarchical,  go-as-you-please  tendencies  here. 

But  in  addition  to  its  duties  and  powers  as  a  con- 
trolling body,  it  functions  also  as  Instructor.  Where 
necessary  it  sends  down  its  expert  to  the  local  Soviets 
to  instruct  officials  in  the  best  way  of  performing  their 
duties,  thus  positively,  as  well  as  by  its  negative  con- 
trolling function,  maintaining  a  high  level  of  official 
performance.  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  would 
be  no  easy  matter  to  become  a  satisfactory  servant  of 
the  Soviet.  While  I  could  not  but  admire  the  spirit 
which  prompted  the  men  of  the  Soviet  to  lay  this  disci- 
pline upon  themselves,  to  prove  themselves  worthy  of 
the  principles  they  profess,  I  confess  that  the  reality 
of  this  control,  so  diametrically  opposed  to  the  current 
idea  of  Bolshevik  action,  gave  me  a  disturbing,  if  an 
illuminating,  shock. 

Lastly,  it  adds  to  its  duties  that  of  adjudicator  of 
complaints.  It  contains  a  Central  Bureau  of  Com- 
plaints, with  branches  in  every  Commissariat  and  in 
every  local  town  where  complaints  can  be  lodged.  At 
first  I  did  not  see  whither  this  was  tending.  But  the 
explanation  is  simple.  It  is  important  to  maintain 
public  confidence  in  the  justice  of  the  system  of  gov- 
ernment, so  recently  introduced,  and  if  any  citizen 
considers  himself  to  be  harmed  by  any  official  it  will 
be  promptly  considered  and  settled.  For,  to  avoid 
long  and  complicated  procedure  in  the  courts,  this 
Bureau  possesses  summary  powers,  and  as  a  conse- 


106  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

quence  the  validity  of  a  complaint  is  swiftly  settled. 
The  plans  seem  to  me  to  be  excellent,  and  they  cer- 
tainly are  admirably  fitted  to  strengthen  confidence  in 
the  new  form  of  government.  For,  whereas  in  its  posi- 
tion of  controlling  organ  it  affects  officials  only,  here 
it  stands  as  the  link  between  people  and  officials. 

In  one  of  the  Bureaus  of  this  department  dealing 
with  complaints  in  Moscow  I  saw  the  system  at  work, 
and  can  testify  to  the  swiftness  and  directness  of  the 
procedure.  But  at  the  same  time  the  thought  pre- 
sented itself  that  the  excellence  of  the  Bureau  will 
depend  entirely  on  the  character  of  the  men  who  work 
it,  a  criticism  which  I  found  myself  making  often,  and 
one  which  the  Bolsheviks  confess  themselves. 


XIV 

THE  MOSCOW  TRAINING  SCHOOL  FOR 
OFFICIAL  WORKERS 

OR,  AS  IT  IS  CALLED,  THE  CENTRAL  SCHOOL  OF 
SOVIET  WORK 

A  CHANCE  remark  put  me  on  the  track  of  this  School, 
and  I  spent  a  day  there  investigating.  It  had  been 
in  existence  for  about  three  months,  and  is  a  proof  of 
the  swiftness  with  which  the  Central  Executive  acts 
when  the  necessity  of  action  is  imposed  on  it.  The 
great  building  of  the  Moscow  Merchants'  Club  was 
taken  over,  a  hurried  installation  (yet  incomplete)  of 
classrooms  and  lecture  halls  made,  and  the  immense 
building  overflows  with  700  students  being  trained  to 
act  as  Soviet  workers  in  the  provinces,  and  600 
students  of  the  School  of  Party  Work,  which  has  been 
instituted  by  the  Central  Committee  of  the  Socialist 
Party. 

The  students  are  selected  by  the  local  Soviets,  and 
are  nearly  all  peasants,  the  sprinkling  of  intellectuals 
being  very  small.  Among  them  are  about  100  tribes- 
men, Kalmucks,  Bashkirs,  and  sixty  Cossacks. 
Among  these  latter  are  ten  prisoners  of  war  taken 
from  Koltchak,  who  will  return  as  local  workers  for 
the  Soviet  as  the  provinces  are  freed  from  Koltchak's 

107 


108  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

rule.  The  students  are  housed,  fed,  and  are  given  5 
roubles  a  day  for  personal  expenses,  but  at  the  same 
time  many  receive  their  full  pay  from  the  local  Soviet 
which  sent  them  to  Moscow.  For  food  they  are  placed 
outside  the  categories,  and  receive  i  lb.  of  bread  a  day, 
with  sugar  and  other  food,  tobacco,  linen,  and  all  neces- 
saries. Both  men  and  women  are  chosen,  the  women 
being  housed  separately.  Some  few  students  who  are 
physically  damaged  live  in  the  School  building,  for  the 
rest,  rooms  are  found  in  some  of  the  former  great 
hotels,  which  are  now  hives  of  Soviet  workers. 

The  courses  last  about  four  months;  in  the  School 
only  theory  being  taught,  for  practical  work  the 
students  are  taken  out  into  departments  that  are 
actually  functioning,  which  they  study  on  the 
spot. 

There  are  special  courses  for  Cossacks,  about  sixty 
in  number,  of  eight  weeks  long,  followed  by  an  exam- 
ination. Of  this  Cossack  section  the  present  one  is  the 
second.  The  first  counted  eighty  Cossack  students,  of 
whom  at  the  close  of  their  course  fifty-five  were  sent 
out  as  workers.  The  School  of  Soviet  Work  prepares 
students  to  act  as  secretaries  of  local  Soviets,  and  man- 
agers of  sections  concerned  with  land,  education,  rail- 
ways, etc.,  under  the  local  Soviets,  while  the  work  of 
the  Party  School  is  devoted  chiefly  to  the  position,  re- 
quirements, and  indoctrination  of  the  middle  class  of 
peasants,  whom  it  is  the  aim  of  the  Central  Executive 
to  lead  gently  into  socialism,  as  their  number  and  posi- 
tion in  a  country  like  Russia  make  them  an  important 
political  factor.    The  fact  of  not  being  a  socialist  is  no 


SCHOOL  OF  SOVIET  WORKERS         109 

bar  to  entry,  neither  of  Soviet  students,  many  of  whom 
are  non-party,  nor  of  professors,  who  are  all  well- 
known  men,  and  many  of  whom  are  not  socialists. 

As  the  country  needs  these  workers  badly,  a  severely 
practical  spirit  has  guided  the  arrangement  of  pro- 
grams and  lectures.  The  work  is  divided  into  sections, 
correspondim^  to  the  various  Commissariats,  and  a 
student  enTers  the  section  in  whose  work  in  the  prov- 
inces he  wishes  to  labor.  It  is  intensive  teaching,  and 
from  what  I  saw  of  it,  it  is  good.  Thus,  the  Agricul- 
tural Course  comprised  in  one  week's  work  studies  in 
cattle,  forestry,  the  land  question,  and  co-operation  in 
agriculture,  where  lectures  were  given  by  specialists. 
The  Transport  Section,  again,  in  one  week  tackled 
electrical  railways,  the  special  transport  of  animals, 
permanent  way  building,  railway  administration,  and 
railway  exploitation,  all  again  under  well-known  pro- 
fessors and  engineers. 

The  Section  of  Food  Control  for  the  week  when  I 
was  at  the  School  had  for  program  the  coupon  system, 
the  Soviet  food  policy  (by  Sviderski,  one  of  the  Col- 
legium of  the  Food  Control,  an  admirably  competent 
man),  organization  of  the  supply  of  the  population  in 
connection  with  the  nationalization  of  production,  the 
participation  of  the  workers  in  production,  corn  re- 
sources, and  the  determination  of  the  corn  surplus, 
transport  in  connection  with  food.  Among  the  lec- 
turers in  this  section  are  two  socialists. 

The  Co-operative  Section  during  the  same  period 
studied  the  organization  and  practice  of  co-operation, 
legislation  for  co-operation,  and  joined  with  the  previ- 


110  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

ous  section  in  Sviderski's  lecture  on  food  control. 
There  are  many  sections,  but  I  give  these  four  pro- 
grams, to  some  of  which  I  listened,  in  order  to  show 
the  line  of  thought  which  governs  the  working  of  the 
School,  where  study  goes  on  from  ten  to  twelve 
o'clock,  then  a  break  for  dinner,  followed  by  work 
from  2  to  6.30,  with  supper,  and  ending  with  work  in 
seminar  classes  in  which  students  join  in  investigating 
some  point  in  connection  with  their  class  work,  or 
thrash  out  a  complete  subject.  Even  the  lectures  are 
followed  by  discussion  between  the  lecturer  and  his 
students  on  questions  that  bear  on  the  topic  of  the 
lecture,  either  posed  by  the  lecturer  or  by  the  students. 
As  a  student  may  not  enter  before  eighteen  years  of 
age,  the  general  level  of  intelligence  is  pretty  high, 
even  though  the  academic  qualification  may  be  small. 
But  care  has  been  taken  in  this  direction  also,  and 
facultative  courses  in  mathematics  and  Russian  lan- 
guage and  grammar  are  held.  While  for  the  students 
in  the  sections  of  Food  Control,  State  Control,  Finance, 
Agriculture  and  Co-operation,  in  all  about  250 
students,  there  are  obligatory  courses  in  general  book- 
keeping, of  fifty  hours  during  the  four  months  of  the 
course,  a  further  special  course  of  thirty  hours  toward 
the  close  of  their  time.  And  at  the  end  there  will  be 
an  examination,  and  a  prompt  sending  of  satisfactory 
candidates  to  work  in  the  provinces.  All  this  sounds 
bald  and  unconvincing.  What  I  should  like  to  convey 
is  the  feeling  I  experienced  as  I  went  from  room  to 
room,  from  some  sixty  Cossacks  listening  with  rapt  at- 
tention to  their  lecturer,  to  a  great  hall  containing 


SCHOOL  OF  SOVIET  WORKERS         111 

600  Communist  Party  students,  who  not  only  received 
a  good  lecture  from  Novsky,  but  carried  on  an  ener- 
getic discussion  afterward,  which  they  only  stopped  in 
order  to  welcome  the  English  stranger  within  their 
gates;  from  Sviderski's  historical  sketch  of  the  rise  of 
food  prices,  dealt  with  a  masterly  grip  of  the  subject, 
to  an  interesting  talk  with  the  lecturer  who  is  in  charge 
of  the  special  courses  for  the  sixty  Cossacks.  My  life 
has  been  spent  largely  in  lecture-rooms,  and  I  know 
weli  when  an  audience  is  worth  the  name.  Spending 
a  time  among  these  eager  students  I  caught  the  thrill 
that  every  experienced  lecturer  feels  when  he  is  talk- 
ing to  an  intent,  sympathetic,  and  comprehending  body 
of  people.  They  justified  their  interest  in  one  huge 
class  by  breaking  into  warm  applause  at  a  point  made 
by  the  teacher.  These  men  and  women  are  exactly 
of  the  same  type  as  those  in  the  Manual  Training 
School  whom  Pokrovsky  described  as  his  very  best 
audience.  I  can  well  believe  the  warm  tribute  paid  to 
these,  unasked,  by  one  of  the  professors.  But  it  is 
not  mere  talk:  that  point  I  would  stress.  The  written 
essays  of  the  students,  the  animated  discussions,  the 
seminar  practice  in  research,  the  practical  study  on 
the  spot  of  the  working  of  the  subjects,  be  it  railways, 
manufactures,  administration  or  what  not — these  safe- 
guards provide  for  the  practical  direction  and  utiliza- 
tion of  the  studies. 

And  soon  will  come  the  period  of  making  a  balance- 
sheet  of  work,  estimating  the  failures  and  mistakes, 
noting  the  good  work,  the  success  of  the  methods — in 
a  word,  of  taking  stock  before  once  again  filling  the 


112  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

huge  building  with  eager  students.  And  the  reflection 
forced  itself  upon  me:  if,  every  few  months,  all  these 
hundreds  of  workers  are  to  be  poured  out  into  every 
comer  of  Russia,  working  for  the  successful  adminis- 
tration of  Russia  on  the  Soviet  system,  for  the  indoc- 
trination of  the  peasants  with  the  ideas  of  socialism, 
and  all  of  them  eager  to  serve,  young,  bubbling  over 
with  enthusiasm — if  this  is  so,  what  is  to  be  said  of 
the  system  under  which  they  have  been  called  into 
being,  of  the  leaders  who  are  far-sighted  enough  to 
set  such  value  on  educated  workers? 

The  fact  that  the  work  is  proceeding  at  high  pres- 
sure does  not  matter,  nor  the  fact  that  the  installation 
is  summary,  and  that  work  and  installation  go  on  side 
by  side;  nor  that  all  is  done  with  a  simplicity  of  ar- 
rangement that  would  horrify  an  English  University 
professor — all  this  is  of  no  consequence.  The  only 
thing  that  matters  is  the  spirit  in  which  the  thing  is 
done,  and  that,  if  the  young  president  of  the  students 
who  came  to  give  me  a  handgrip  and  a  fiery  word  at 
parting  is  any  prophet — will  be  invincible. 


BOLSHEVISM  AND  THE  HEALTH  OF  THE 
WORKERS 

A   HOME    OF   REST    KEPT   BY   THE   MOSCOW    SOVIET    AT 

n^INSKOE,  THE  SUMMER  PALACE  OF  THE 

FORMER  GRAND  DUKE  SERGIUS 

I  WISHED  to  see  Professor  Timiriasev,  and  learning 
that  he  was  staying  at  a  sanatorium  35  versts  from 
Moscow,  I  accepted  an  invitation  to  go  out  and  see 
him,  little  expecting  the  experience  that  awaited  me. 
We  motored  rapidly  out,  never  being  far  from  the 
river,  getting  gradually  into  finely  diversified  country, 
and  ended  by  driving  for  miles  through  a  magnificent 
double  avenue  of  limes  to  a  sort  of  park  gate.  In 
reply  to  my  questions  I  then  learned  that  we  were 
bound  for  the  summer  seat  of  the  late  Grand  Duke 
Sergius. 

This  is  a  large,  unpretentious,  two-storied  building 
with  extending  wings,  built  on  the  height  of  a  gently 
sloping  bank  above  the  Moskva  River.  The  wings 
continue  into  two  terraces,  and  the  river  front  has  an- 
other covered  terrace,  all  being  intended  solely  for  use 
during  the  hot  Russian  summer.  The  view  from  the 
river  terrace  is  singularly  reminiscent  of  Richmond 
Hill.    A  deeply  wooded  bank  falls  gently  to  the  river. 

113 


114  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

which  here  makes  a  big  curve  like  the  Thames  above 
Richmond,  while  the  opposite  bank  rises  in  rolling  hills 
that  are  thick  with  forest,  but  broken  here  and  there, 
affording  the  most  picturesque  perspectives.  Away  on 
the  right  beyond  the  furthest  visible  point  of  the*  river 
can  be  seen  the  Grand  Duke's  winter  house.  Woods 
surround  Ilinskoe,  in  which  easy  walks  are  arranged 
in  all  directions,  and  the  soothing  peace  and  beauty  of 
the  situation  make  it  not  only  a  desirable  residence,  but 
fit  it  exactly  for  its  present  use — it  is  a  sanatorium,  a 
home  of  rest — maintained  by  the  Moscow  Soviet  for 
the  use  of  the  workers  of  Moscow.  Where  formerly 
were  two  people,  waited  on  by  an  army  of  servants, 
were  now  150  people  of  all  kinds  enjoying  a  well- 
earned  rest  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period;  famous  pro- 
fessors and  chauffeurs,  high  officials  and  children, 
Soviet  workmen  and  women,  workmen  with  their 
famihes,  and  the  chairman  of  the  co-operative  machine 
of  all  Russia;  some  staying  a  month  to  recuperate  after 
illness,  others  there  only  for  the  week-end  or  for  the 
Sunday — ^but  all  on  special  medical  permission.  My 
companion  was  a  Commissary  of  the  People,  whose 
departmental  work  was  so  heavy  he  could  take  no  holi- 
day, but  had  instead  obtained  permission  to  spend 
partial  week-ends  here. 

The  life  is  perfectly  simple,  simple  perhaps  with 
a  simplicity  that  could  hardly  exist  outside  Russia, 
but  pleasant,  cheerful,  and  eminently  restful.  The 
gentle  green  tracks  in  the  dense  woodland  are  ideal 
for  tired  people,  the  river  affords  bathing,  and  for  the 
more  unable  or  unwilling  there  are  easy-chairs  on  the 


A  BOLSHEVIK  HOME  OF  REST  115 

terrace,  with  a  glorious  view  stretching  away  in  front 
for  the  trouble  of  looking.  The  very  house  repaid 
the  trouble  expended  in  walking  about  it.  It  had 
formerly  been  an  imperial  seat,  had  passed  in  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century  into  the  hands  of  a  very 
wealthy  man  with  revolutionary  tendencies,  and  at  the 
end  of  one  of  the  wings  is  a  small  pavilion  in  which 
the  famous  Hertzen  used  to  live.  Then  it  went  to 
Alexander  II,  whose  cabinet  and  writing-table  were 
still  there,  and  was  given  by  Alexander  III  to  the 
Grand  Duke  Sergius;  finally,  it  has  fallen  to  the 
Moscow  Soviet  to  hold  it  and  use  it  as  a  home  of  rest. 
Its  furniture  and  decorations  remain  as  they  were, 
and  they  throw  a  striking  light  on  the  simplicity,  to  use 
no  other  word,  of  the  taste  of  its  former  imperial 
owners  and  users.  At  the  end  of  one  of  the  wings  a 
gentle  sloping  track  leads  into  the  forest,  and  after 
about  300  yards  to  a  queer-looking  turreted  building 
of  two  floors,  which  was  used  as  a  library.  It  con- 
tains a  number  of  family  portraits  of  a  very  mediocre 
order  and  library  cases  of  books,  added  to  by  the 
various  owners,  but  of  which  very  many  bore  the 
ex  libris  plate  S.A. — Sergius  Alexandrovitch — the  last 
of  them.  There  was  a  very  good  selection  of  French 
literature,  with  well-chosen  types  of  the  modern 
schools,  a  smaller  English  and  German  set,  and  many 
Russian.  Some  of  the  books  were  illuminating — they 
bore  in  pencil  the  date  of  their  confiscation;  they  had 
then  been  bound  and  added  to  the  library.  Some  small 
cases  in  which  were  curious  and  worthless  collections, 
albums  of  family  photographs,  such  as  can  be  found 


116  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

in  a  suburban  or  provincial  home  in  England,  and  some 
simple  furniture,  completing  the  furnishing.  The 
whole  was  carefully  catalogued. 

I  was  taken  over  this  by  Professor  Pokrovsky,  who, 
with  his  family,  had  rested  here  for  a  couple  of  days. 
But  I  had  come  to  see  Professor  Timiriasev  and 
sought  him  out.  The  famous  botanist,  who  is  a  well- 
known  member  of  the  Royal  Society,  had  been  ill  and 
was  resting  in  Ilinskoe.  He  and  I  talked  of  the  intel- 
lectual classes  and  the  university  staffs,  of  their  atti- 
tude to  the  Soviet  rule,  and  of  the  part  they  were 
playing  with  regard  to  the  new  life  in  Russia.  I  told 
him  of  my  investigations  into  the  programs  of 
Lunacharsky  and  Pokrovsky,  of  my  visits  to  schools, 
and  of  the  opinion  I  had  formed  of  the  work  that  is 
going  on.  He,  for  his  part,  expressed  admiration  not 
only  for  the  schemes,  but,  as  he  said,  for  the  progress 
that  has  been  made  with  them  in  a  time  that  can  be 
reckoned  in  months.  But  of  the  intellectual  classes, 
and  the  professors  in  the  great  universities,  he  de- 
plored the  attitude.  According  to  him,  it  is  only  a 
minority  that  are  working  whole-heartedly  with  the 
Soviet  Government.  The  majority  are  more  or  less 
hostile,  though  he  thought  it  was  only  a  question  of 
time  for  them  to  come  round  to  a  more  favorable  esti- 
mate of  the  existing  Government.  As  I  mentioned  the 
popular  universities  that  are  being  founded  and  the 
technical  classes  that  are  so  largely  followed,  he  said 
that  the  attitude  of  the  professors  was  really  suicidal, 
that  their  politically  uncompromising  attitude  might 
leave   them   in   the   position   of   professors   without 


A  BOLSHEVIK  HOME  OF  REST         117 

students.  He  sees  and  approves  of  the  great  awaken- 
ing among  the  masses  of  Russians  of  the  keen  desire 
to  learn  and  to  develop  their  faculties.  And  he  insisted 
again  on  the  ground  that  had  been  already  won,  the 
progress  made  in  spreading  enlightenment.  It  may 
well  be  that  the  prevailing  method  in  the  Tsaristic 
times  of  selecting  professors  for  the  universities  ac- 
counts for  the  irreconcilable  attitude  of  the  present 
remnant.  A  man  of  pronounced  political  opinions 
could  hardly  obtain  a  chair,  or  if  obtained,  he  had 
difficulty  in  retaining  it.  As  a  consequence  reactionary 
professors  were  chosen,  who  think  probably  that  their 
chances  of  promotion  or  retention,  under  Koltchak 
or  Denikin,  would  be  certainly  imperiled  by  working 
for  the  Soviet  Republic.  The  presence  of  two  famous 
professors,  a  botanist  and  an  historian,  in  this  home  of 
rest  crowded  with  men,  women,  and  children  of  all 
t5^es  and  of  all  stages  of  mental  development,  yet  so 
completely  at  home,  and  finding  nothing  strange  in  the 
juxtaposition,  seems  to  me  to  be,  in  a  measure,  typical 
of  the  aim  of  the  Soviet  power.  The  equality  at  which 
it  aims  was  there  without  any  jarring.  All  were  served 
alike,  and  good  manners  obtained  all  round.  The  only 
difference  noticeable  being  the  respect  shown  by  the 
young  members  of  the  party  toward  the  intellectual 
eminence  of  men  like  Timiriasev  and  Pokrovsky, 
whose  lives  have  been  spent  in  public  service.  The 
only  title  heard  was  "  tovarishtch  " — comrade — no 
matter  to  whom  applied,  and  this,  though  it  strikes 
queerly  at  first,  ends  by  making  its  own  appeal — it  is 
so  useful  and  all-embracing.    And  a  moment's  thought 


118  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

of  the  use  formerly  made  of  the  vast  green  fields  be- 
tween river  bank  and  forest  opposite  the  terrace  front 
of  the  house — Sergius  used  to  send  for  soldiers,  who 
had  to  march  the  35  versts  from  Moscow  to  parade 
here  and  relieve  his  boredom — with  the  cheerfulness 
and  joy  around  me,  made  me  glad  indeed  to  have  such 
a  day  with  others  in  one  of  the  homes  of  rest  of  the 
Soviet  Republic. 


XVI 

CONCLUSIONS 

The  Western  world  has  yet  to  gain  a  correct  view,  a 
clear  perspective,  of  the  men  and  forces  operative  in 
the  present  Soviet  Government  of  Russia,  and  I  shall 
try  to  draw  together  the  impressions  made  on  me  by 
my  investigations  both  in  the  various  Commissariats 
and  in  visits  to  institutions  in  active  work,  and  by  my 
contact  with  the  men  at  the  head  of  affairs,  hoping  that 
it  may  help  in  the  formation  of  this  view.  First,  Men 
and  their  Policy.  They  are  men  of  grip,  both  of  the 
political  situation  and  of  the  executive  office  of  which 
each  one  is  the  head.  Their  avowed  aim  is  the  preser- 
vation of  the  effects  of  the  Revolution,  and  through 
them  the  setting  up  of  a  new  social  order.  To  this  end 
they  recoil  from  no  act  deemed  necessary,  and  this  is 
one  of  the  sources  of  their  power.  It  is  usually  said 
that  they  are  engaged  in  setting  up  a  system  of  Com- 
munism. They  are  no  such  fools.  They  are  fully 
aware  of  the  impossibility  of  such  an  immediate 
change;  and,  as  Lenin  says,  "  the  Communist  who 
wishes  to  set  up  a  Commune  now  is  no  Communist." 
That  is,  I  think,  a  profoundly  true  view,  and  it  explains 
the  concessions  made  in  practice,  and  the  form  which 
the  Government  of  Russia  temporarily  takes. 

The    chief    Commissaries    are    Communists,    the 
strongest  element  supporting  the  Government  is  Com- 

119 


120  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

munist,  but  very  many  who  are  at  work  for  the  Soviet 
are  not  Communists;  many  are  non-party  men,  but  in 
most  cases  they  work  that  the  Revolution  may  not  be 
a  failure,  seeing  in  the  Soviet  Government  at  present 
its  only  safeguard.  The  ultimate  aim  undoubtedly  is 
a  Commune,  but  the  process  by  which  that  end  is  to 
be  attained  is  the  slow  setting  up  of  a  State  capitalism 
— the  State  as  sole  proprietor.  There  are  many  things, 
such  as  the  payment  made  for  corn,  the  allowance  of 
rest,  the  payment  of  salaries  to  workers,  the  purchas- 
ing of  food,  and  so  on,  which  are  all  concessions,  away 
from  Communism,  but  which  can  be  allowed  in  this 
transition  stage  of  setting  up  State  proprietorship,  but 
which  will  disappear  when  the  State  finds  itself  in  a 
position  to  take  up  these  matters  and  absorb  them 
once  for  all.  This  again  is  a  proo^  of  the  sound  judg- 
ment of  the  leaders.  Unless  pressed  by  immediate 
necessity,  as  in  land  and  food,  a  department  of  the  life 
of  the  country  is  not  handled  until  it  can  be  done  so 
effectively;  and  in  the  meantime  complete  nationali- 
zation and  private  enterprise  go  side  by  side,  until  the 
time  and  conditions  are  ripe  for  the  State  to  intervene 
once  for  all. 

The  usual  idea  of  a  chief  Commissary  as  a  dema- 
gogue who  has  made  himself  the  head  of  a  public 
department,  a  post  for  which  he  is  totally  unfitted, 
is  a  farcical  travesty  of  the  truth.  Many  of  these  men 
have  full  technical  qualifications  for  the  post  they  oc- 
cupy. To  mention  only  a  few,  Krassin  (Ways  and 
Communications),  Lunacharsky  (Education),  Miliu- 
tin  (National  Economics),  Tomsky  and  Melnichansky 


CONCLUSIONS  121 

(Trades'  Unions),  and  many  others,  men  who  have 
in  addition  great  energy  and  driving  power,  who  have 
already  produced  vast  results  under  difficulties  which 
would  have  crushed  smaller  men.  They  have  de- 
stroyed a  corrupt  bureaucracy;  in  replacing  it,  they 
have  made  mistakes,  have  had  to  grope  their  way 
painfully  through  the  chaos  of  this  overturn.  They 
confess  it,  but  they  learned  by  their  experience  and 
their  system  gained  by  their  mistakes.  Another  West- 
ern calumny  needs  exposing.  These  men  are  pro- 
foundly simple  in  dress,  food,  life.  In  that  respect 
they  are  true  to  the  principles  they  profess.  The 
alleged  orgies  are  lies.  The  truth  is  that  they  live 
a  life  of  work  to  which  that  of  a  convict  is  as  child's 
play,  and  many  of  them  bear  evidences  of  the  terrific 
strain  under  which  they  live.  While  as  for  the  piling 
up  of  money,  one  has  but  to  say  that  the  highest 
salary  on  the  tariffs  of  pay  is  3,000  roubles  a  month, 
and  that  Lenin  himself  has  a  salary  of  2,000  roubles, 
for  that  gibe  to  disappear.  Let  us  at  any  rate  be 
just. 

They  have  set  up  "  the  dictatorship  of  the  pro- 
letariat," a  phrase  which  is  a  fully  developed  bug- 
bear to  Western  nations  who  use  it  as  the  complete 
explanation  of  Bolshevism,  the  raison  d'etre  of  the 
Soviet  Republic.  A  little  thought  will  put  the  matter 
in  its  right  light.  The  "  dictatorship  of  the  pro- 
letariat "  is  not  a  policy,  it  is  but  a  means  to  an  end, 
a  process  in  the  achieving  of  a  policy.  Hard  experi- 
ence of  the  disastrous  results  of  a  coalition  of  workers 
and  bourgeois  showed  the  danger  of  losing  the  effects 


122  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

of  the  Revolution,  while  little  change  was  produced  in 
the  condition  of  the  masses  who  had  made  that  Revo- 
lution. The  rule  of  the  bourgeoisie  was  the  rule  of  a 
minority — and  disastrous  at  that.  The  workers  took 
power  and  imposed  their  will,  the  rule  of  a  majority, 
to  be  continued  as  long  as  necessary.  For  it  is  recog- 
nized as  only  a  temporary  expedient.  When  Soviet 
rule  is  fully  recognized  and  established,  as  there  will 
be  no  classes,  the  dictatorship  of  any  particular  part 
will  be  illogical.  It  is  used  at  present  as  the  necessary 
means  of  insuring  the  stability  of  the  Government,  and 
of  acting  effectively  against  all  attempts  to  overthrow 
it.  Finally,  it  is  flung  at  the  Soviet  Republic  as  a  dis- 
honorable thing  that  among  its  Commissaries  are  Jews. 
Improving  on  that  some  go  so  far  as  to  make  Jew 
and  Bolshevik  convertible  terms,  and  of  the  hideous 
results  of  this  slander  reports  from  the  south  and  west 
of  Russia  are  full.  Well,  in  any  body  of  Russian  revo- 
lutionaries there  have  always  been  Jews,  and  in  this 
last  great  Revolution  there  were  also  Jews.  And 
among  the  Commissaries  there  are  Jews.  But  why 
should  not  a  race  which  among  the  Russian  nationali- 
ties has  always  distinguished  itself  by  its  ardor  for 
culture  find  a  place  where  ability  and  knowledge  are 
of  the  first  value?  The  very  utmost  that  can  be  said 
is  that  Jews  are  found  among  the  prominent  men  of 
the  Soviet  Republic  to  an  extent  greater  than  the  pro- 
portion they  bear  to  the  entire  population.  The  fol- 
lowing numbers  speak  for  themselves:  Out  of  eighteen 
Commissaries  of  the  People,  only  one  is  of  Jewish 
blood,  and  of  115  members  of  the  Government,  only 


CONCLUSIONS  123 

eight  are  Jews.  But  I  have  also  seen  them  as  privates 
and  officers  at  the  front,  as  local  Commissaries  and 
officials,  and  wherever  I  have  seen  a  Jew  there  in 
number  infinitely  greater  have  I  seen  other  Russians. 
The  cruelty  of  this  slander  can  only  be  properly  ap- 
preciated on  the  spot  in  Russia,  where  it  is  used  to 
justify  the  most  hideous  cruelties  and  revolting  bar- 
barities committed  by  Poles,  by  the  soldiery  of  Denikin 
and  of  Koltchak  on  the  Jewish  populations  who  fall 
into  their  power.  Of  these,  authenticated  docu- 
mentary reports  and  photographs  have  been  in  my 
hands. 

One  last  remark  on  the  question  of  the  men  of  the 
Soviet  Republic.  If  any  hopes  in  the  failure  of  these 
men  have  been  founded  on  the  slanderous  descriptions 
of  them  circulated  in  the  west  of  Europe  as  self- 
seekers,  gluttons  for  personal  pleasures  and  for  money, 
German  agents,  and  bloody  monsters — after  my  con- 
tact with  them  and  their  work,  I  feel  convinced  those 
hopes  are  doomed  to  disappointment. 

Organization  (Political). — Through  the  local  Soviets 
this  extends  to  the  smallest  Commune  in  the  country. 
It  is  little  realized  in  the  west  of  Europe  the  strength 
of  the  grip  which  the  Soviet  system  has  on  the  country, 
growing  stronger  month  by  month.  Its  minuteness  is 
astonishing,  and  very  little  can  escape  its  notice  or  in- 
fluence. The  usual  impression  of  the  system  of 
Soviets  is  a  mass  of  committees  acting  independently 
all  over  the  country,  an  anarchic  condition  of  local 
authorities.  The  reality  is  far  otherwise.  From  the 
Central  Executive,  through  provincial,  town,  and  dis- 


124  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

trict  Soviets  there  is  close  and  constant  connection. 
Frequent  congresses  are  called  in  Moscow  to  which 
delegates  of  the  various  Soviets  are  summoned  so  that 
action  shall  be  co-ordinated  and  made  appropriate  to 
the  various  districts.  While  in  the  control  of  industries 
the  way  in  which  the  Professional  Alliances,  who  are 
also  largely  concerned  in  the  composition  of  the 
Soviets,  are  involved  in  the  various  stages  of  work- 
men's committees,  management,  trust,  and  section 
committees  right  up  to  the  Supreme  Council  of  Na- 
tional Economics,  insures  the  same  sort  of  close  organi- 
zation of  all  industrial  matters,  and  as  these  are  closely 
connected  with  political  action,  it  can  be  seen  what  a 
compact  organization  obtains.  As  Miliutin  said,  the 
industrial  system  selects  the  best  brains  from  among 
the  workers,  and  I  have  come  across  proof  of  his  claim, 
so  that  the  men  who  are  working  the  organization  are 
tried  and  proved  men.  Further,  the  State  Control 
Department  not  only  controls  most  effectively  all  of- 
ficial action  and  responsibility,  but  instructs  how  best 
to  carry  out  official  duties.  From  all  this  it  can  be 
seen  clearly  that  the  idea  of  a  widespread  anarchy  of 
authorities  is  entirely  wrong,  the  reality  being  an 
organization,  political  and  economical,  of  very  close 
tissue,  the  whole  being  so  strongly  connected  that,  as 
I  said,  the  life  of  the  country  is  in  its  grip,  and  little 
or  nothing  can  escape  its  influence.  The  chief  agent 
in  the  spread  of  the  principles  of  Soviet  government 
is  of  course  propaganda,  but  propaganda  of  a  versa- 
tility and  a  completeness  never  before  experienced. 
The  Communist  Party,  which  is  the  fighting  element 


CONCLUSIONS  126 

in  the  Soviet  power,  is,  in  itself,  organized  in  a  for- 
midable fashion,  and  from  time  to  time  sends  its  chief 
members,  whatever  may  be  the  office  they  hold,  into 
the  country  whenever  the  action  of  the  Government 
needs  presenting,  explaining,  or  supporting.  The  men 
must  obey  the  call.  And  when  it  is  considered  that 
these  men  are  powerful  speakers  and.  past  masters  in 
the  art  of  managing  an  audience,  the  effect  of  this 
manoeuver  can  be  imagined.  The  call  to  special  service 
affects  all  members  of  the  party,  and  once  given  is 
always  obeyed.  This  voluntary  discipline,  which  is 
quite  rigid,  makes  of  the  Communist  Party  a  corps 
d' elite  for  political  propaganda.  They  are  the  spear- 
head of  the  movement  which  supports  the  Soviet  Re- 
public, and,  consequently,  the  Social  Revolution. 
Strong  precautions  are  taken  before  anyone  is  admitted 
to  the  party,  and  once  admitted  he  is  soon  aware  that 
he  has  not  entered  upon  a  heritage  of  privileges,  but 
only  of  duties,  arduous  duties.  He  is  enjoined  to  live 
up  to  the  professions  of  the  Communist  Party,  and 
any  lapses  are  severely  treated.  For  if  a  case  of  evil- 
doing  occurs  among  officials  and  is  to  be  punished,  if 
the  defaulting  official  be  a  non-Communist,  he  may 
be  sentenced  to  hard  labor,  but  if  a  Communist,  he  is 
shot.  He  atones  for  the  discredit  he  has  brought  upon 
the  Communist  cause  by  his  life.  This  is  a  point  which 
should  be  considered  as  against  the  common  report 
which  puts  the  Sovietists  and  all  their  supporters  as 
an  undisciplined  mob.  My  strong  impression  is  one  of 
iron  discipline  and  a  self-abnegation  in  the  political 
cause  to  a  degree  to  which  I  have  hitherto  been  quite 


126  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

unaccustomed.  In  Moscow  itself  meetings  are  held 
weekly  in  which  the  leaders  assist,  and  district  Soviets 
and  district  party  organizations  also  maintain  a  stream 
of  meetings  every  week,  all  tending  in  the  same  direc- 
tion. I  myself  attended  one  of  these  local  meetings  in 
the  Presnia  quarter.  The  audience  was  about  i,ooo 
strong,  all  workmen,  workwomen,  and  soldiers,  who 
sat  through  long  speeches  by  party  workers.  Work- 
men and  delegates  showed  their  interest  by  sending  up 
many  questions  to  the  chairman,  and  all  this  after 
having  held  a  party  conference  in  the  same  theater. 
Anyone  could  attend  the  meeting,  and  there  seemed  no 
check  on  any  expression  of  opinion;  while  the  orderly 
character  of  the  proceedings  was  most  marked.  These 
meetings,  which  provide  excellent  debating  grounds  on 
the  general  situation,  are  eminently  educative  in  a 
political  sense  for  the  public  attending  them,  and  they 
sustain  the  feeling  of  the  workers  which  is  undoubtedly 
one  of  the  great  supports  of  the  Sovietists.  This  same 
propaganda  goes  on  at  the  front  under  chosen  leaders, 
and  when  the  teachers  are  mobilized  their  function  is 
largely  to  assist  in  this  particular  sort  of  work.  The 
stream  is  thus  steady,  full,  and  incessant.  But  the 
organization  of  propaganda  is  not  confined  to  the 
spoken  word.  The  kinema  and  the  poster  are  pressed 
into  service,  and  though  some  of  the  posters  are  weak, 
there  are  large  numbers  which  are  strikingly  effective, 
the  artists  succeeding  in  arresting  attention  and  fixing 
the  poster's  appeal  at  a  glance.  Maps  on  a  very  large 
scale,  regular  bulletins  in  chosen  wall  spaces,  abound 
in  the  city.    You  cannot  go  far  without  receiving  some 


CONCLUSIONS  127 

impression  of  political  value.  And  the  Soviet  has  gone 
still  further  in  fixing  monuments,  temporary  and  per- 
manent, which  are  meant  to  affect  the  mind  through 
the  appeal  to  the  eye  and  the  artistic  sense.  But  one 
of  the  experiments  which  is,  in  my  opinion,  likely  to 
have  far-reaching  results  on  the  entire  population  of 
Russia  is  the  school  for  training  Soviet  workers,  in 
which  also  is  a  party  school  of  the  Communists.  It 
is  near  the  end  of  its  first  session,  but  will  become 
a  permanency  after  a  stock-taking  conference  on 
methods  and  results,  which  conference  is  itself  a  proof 
of  the  strong  political  sense  and  pedagogic  instinct 
which  are  guiding  the  school.  Outside  the  party 
school,  non-Communist  opinions  are  no  bar  to  a 
student's  entry,  nor  a  professor's  activity,  the  sole  re- 
quirement being  a  loyal  desire  to  work  for  Soviet  rule 
and  for  maintaining  the  results  of  the  Revolution.  But 
the  effect  of  turning  out  into  every  corner  of  the 
country  three  times  a  year  700  workers  and  future 
officials  of  the  local  Soviets,  and  600  Communist 
workers  among  the  peasants,  can  be  easily  imagined, 
especially  when  it  is  remembered  that  these  students 
come  from  all  the  nationalities  existing  in  Russia,  are 
largely  peasants,  and  return  to  their  own  localities 
when  their  course  of  training  is  finished.  Political 
propaganda  is,  to  my  mind,  complete,  for  it  covers  all 
the  life  of  Russia;  intense,  for  it  is  led  by  competent 
and  determined  men;  and  all-pervading,  for  I  have 
met  with  evidence  of  it  even  in  the  small  outposts  of 
the  extreme  front. 

Organization  of  the  Commissariats. — I  have  inter- 


128  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

viewed  the  Commissaries  on  the  work  and  scope  of 
their  departments,  and  I  have  seen  with  my  own  eyes 
the  minutely  elaborate  organizations  built  up  during 
the  last  twenty  months.  The  number  of  employes  is 
enormous,  and  among  them  are  many  former  bourgeois 
and  many  non-party  men  and  women,  but  the  headship 
of  departments  and  of  sub-departments  is  in  the  hands 
of  convinced  supporters  of  the  policy  and  aims  of  the 
Soviet.  Whatever  mistakes  have  been  made  in  the 
past  are  corrected  in  the  light  of  experience,  and  there 
is  nothing  haphazard  about  the  functioning  of  the  great 
departments  of  the  Government.  The  Revolution 
overthrew  the  bureaucracy  with  all  its  corruption,  and 
the  Sovietists  have  no  intention  of  allowing  a  similar 
state  of  things  to  grow  up  under  their  rule.  There 
existed  under  the  old  regime  a  timid  body  of  control. 
The  Sovietists  have  taken  it,  expanded  it,  and  turned 
it  into  a  formidable  machine,  which  actively  controls  all 
departments  of  State,  including  finance,  all  the  people 
employed,  from  the  Commissaries  of  the  People  down- 
ward, the  composition  of  departments  and  their  ef- 
ficiency. It  prevents  duplication,  overlapping,  need- 
less expenditure,  and  acts  as  prosecutor  in  cases  where 
faults  have  been  committed.  It  is  really  the  supreme 
controlling  influence  in  the  State,  for  through  its 
branches  it  extends  to  all  local  Soviets,  while  through 
its  Bureau  of  Complaints  it  takes  cognizance  of  all 
cases  of  people  who  complain  of  harm  at  the  hands  of 
an  official,  and  thus  generates  a  feeling  of  confidence 
in  the  justice  of  the  Government,  in  the  minds  of  the 
people  even  when  practised  against  its  own  members. 


CONCLUSIONS  129 

For  the  State  Control  does  not  meddle  with  private 
persons,  its  province  is  the  officials.  In  all  this  there 
is,  to  me,  a  sincere  desire  to  purify  official  life  and 
function  which  corresponds  ill  to  the  grotesque  carica- 
tures of  Soviet  government  which  had  become  familiar 
to  me  during  the  past  two  years. 

Organization  of  Transport. — On  this  vital  matter  I 
think  my  report  of  the  interview  with  Krassin,  the 
Commissary,  speaks  sufficiently  clearly.  The  position 
was,  and  is  yet,  one  of  great  difficulty  owing  to  the 
exhausted  condition  in  which  the  Great  War  left  the 
railways,  the  impossibility  of  filling  up  the  gaps  in 
material,  and  the  tremendous  demands  upon  the  rail- 
ways which  have  been  maintained  ever  since.  When 
these  things  are  taken  into  consideration  I  think  that 
Krassin  has  worked  wonders,  for  he  has  maintained 
passenger  services,  though  depleted,  met  the  require- 
ments of  food  control,  and  has  most  successfully  moved 
and  supplied  troops  over  immense  distances,  all  with 
the  combustion  of  wood  alone.  A  thing  which  came 
recently  to  my  notice  gives  perhaps  the  best  proof  of 
the  efficiency  he  has  introduced  into  the  system.  In 
the  provinces  retaken  from  Koltchak  the  harvest  is 
unusually  heavy,  and  for  its  collecting  the  assistance 
of  50,000  men  was  required.  It  was  decided  to  send 
them,  and  though  these  provinces  are  on  the  eastern 
front,  whose  military  demands  are  very  heavy,  in  a 
fortnight  20,000  were  sent  down  to  harvest,  without 
any  dislocation  of  the  already  vast  service  for  military 
purposes.  This  question  of  transport  is  really  the  key 
to  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  organization  of 


130  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

supplies  for  the  population.  To  convey  supplies  to 
the  districts  on  the  fringe  of  Soviet  territory,  which  as 
a  rule  do  not  raise  a  sufficiency  of  food  for  themselves, 
is  difficult,  and  depends  on  the  efficiency  of  the  trans- 
port system.  It  accounts  for  differences  I  have  myself 
experienced,  e.g.  in  the  west  I  found  people  eating 
oil-cake,  while  here,  in  the  center,  we  have  black  bread, 
in  what  to  me,  an  Englishman,  is  a  sufficient  quantity. 
But  the  harvest  is  plentiful,  and  if  it  can  be  gathered, 
I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  Soviet  Russia  has 
passed  through  its  worst  period, — the  future  can  only 
be  an  improvement.  This  view  is  supported  by  my  in- 
vestigations in  the  Department  of  Food  Control.  As 
showing  the  care  shown  in  details  of  organization  it 
should  be  noticed  that  the  immense  system  of  co- 
operative agencies  in  Russia  is  to  be  called  in  aid. 
Brought  into  a  unified  organization  they  will  be  the 
instrument  of  the  Government  in  the  transactions  for 
corn  with  the  peasants,  and  will  be  the  means  of  dis- 
tributing the  goods  or  money  allotted  in  exchange  for 
corn.  As  a  consequence  of  this  astute  move  the  Chair- 
man of  the  Co-operative  Committee  guarantees  after 
harvest  a  pound  of  bread  per  person  per  day.  Should 
this  prove  true,  it  will  be  a  triumph  of  successful 
organization  for  the  Department  of  the  Food  Con- 
trol. 

One  last  word  on  tiie  transport  service — its  general 
condition.  Russia  is  supplying  all  she  can,  under  the 
conditions  imposed  on  her,  in  reparations  and  manu- 
facture of  new  material.  But  the  destruction  and 
wearing  out  of  lines  and  rolling  stock  caused  by  six 


CONCLUSIONS  131 

years  of  war  are  so  great  that  the  requirements  are 
colossal  in  amount.  An  engineer,  formerly  head  of  an 
industrial  enterprise  in  Petrograd,  estimated  that  were 
trade  relations  reopened  with  Russia  she  would  be 
a  purchaser  of  locomotives,  wagons,  spare  parts, 
machines  for  factories  with  their  spare  parts,  and 
machines  for  agriculture  to  the  extent  of  25  milliards 
of  roubles!  Going  through  what  is  one  of  the  largest 
textile  factories  in  Russia,  I  mentioned  this  to  the 
directors,  and  was  told  that  it  was  probably  true,  but 
that  it  was  impossible  to  give  more  than  an  approxi- 
mate estimate  of  the  vast  needs  of  Russia,  but  that 
as  for  their  own  factories  they  had  before  the  war  put 
out  orders  to  a  million  roubles  for  machinery  and  spare 
parts  not  one  bit  of  which  had  been  received,  and  that 
there  were  now  six  years  of  additional  loss,  wear  and 
tear  and  destruction  to  be  made  good. 

Finally,  my  investigations  point  to  an  organization 
of  all  departments  of  the  Government  which  is  strong, 
compact,  and  closely  interwoven.  It  reaches  every- 
where. It  is  also  very  supple,  for  through  it,  action, 
which  in  Great  Britain  would  be  delayed  through  par- 
liamentary action,  is  here  undertaken  with  peculiar 
swiftness  and  effect. 

Specific  Activities  of  the  Soviet  Republic 

Here  I  have  taken  particular  instances  of  the  ac- 
tivity of  the  Sovietists  concerning  which  fixed  im- 
pressions have  been  produced  in  West  Europe  by 
reports,  stories,  and  by  more  or  less  official  statements. 


132  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

and  have  compared  them  with  the  realities  existing 
here. 

Children. — One  of  the  things  most  carefully  im- 
pressed on  me  just  before  leaving  Reval  was  that 
in  Moscow  I  would  find  no  children  under  ten 
years  of  age.  All  younger,  I  was  informed,  were 
dead. 

The  truth  is  that  both  Moscow  and  all  parts  of 
Russia  I  have  visited  swarm  with  young  children,  from 
babies  in  arms  upwards.  And  in  no  country  in  the 
world  with  which  I  am  acquainted  is  so  much  care 
and  thought  lavished  on  children  by  any  Government 
as  here  in  Russia.  In  saying  that  I  speak  with  expert 
knowledge,  for  my  life  has  been  spent  in  educational 
work.  Up  to  the  age  of  sixteen  food  and  necessaries 
are  supplied  gratis,  according  to  the  rate  of  the  highest 
category.  Whoever  else  may  suffer  from  the  strin- 
gency of  conditions,  it  is  certainly  not  the  children. 
Education  is  gratuitous,  and  has  been  placed  on  a  foot- 
ing and  planned  with  a  lavishness  that  bids  fair  to 
cope  successfully  in  the  future  with  the  dense  igno- 
rance of  millions  of  illiterates. 

Working  schools,  popular  training  classes,  people's 
clubs  and  associations,  technical  classes  and  schools, 
popular  universities  continue  the  work,  and  everything 
is  planned  and  much  is  already  done  to  gratify  the 
thirst  for  knowledge  and  improvement  that  exists 
among  the  young.  That,  at  any  rate  in  Moscow,  there 
is  no  need  to  arouse.  It  has  arisen  spontaneously. 
And  it  must  exist  in  the  provinces,  seeing  the  ease 
with   which   large   numbers   of  peasants,   men   and 


CONCLUSIONS  133 

women,  youths  and  adults,  can  be  selected  for  specific 
training  as  workers.  It  looks  to  me  as  if  the  Revolu- 
tion has  produced  among  the  masses  of  the  people  an 
explosion  of  desire  to  eat  of  the  tree  of  knowledge. 
The  carrying  off  of  children  in  colonies  to  the  country 
in  summer  is  a  movement  that  tends  toward  physical 
improvement,  and  at  the  same  time  relieves  the  food 
difficulty  in  towns,  by  taking  the  children  where  food 
is  more  plentiful.  And  it  gives  opportunities  to  the 
older  ones  of  learning  to  help  in  the  work  of  the  fields. 
In  any  case,  the  guiding  motive  is  the  improvement  of 
child  life,  which  has  led  also  to  the  giving  of  meals 
in  schools,  which  when  their  children  are  not  taken 
to  the  country  are  kept  open,  that  the  meals  may  not 
be  intermitted.  And  while  all  this  care  is  poured  out 
on  the  rearing  of  the  young,  an  equal  amount  is  be- 
stowed on  provision  for  their  recreation  and  amuse- 
ment, a  work  which  is  crowned  by  the  functioning  of 
seven  theaters  in  Moscow  on  Sunday  afternoons  solely 
for  their  benefit.  The  commencing  age  for  work  is 
sixteen  years,  and  up  to  eighteen  years  two  hours 
of  the  working  day  must  be  spent  in  class  study — by 
law.  Later  it  is  intended  to  raise  the  age  of  beginning 
work.  Here  is  shown  continuously  care  for  those  of 
tender  age. 

For  Infants  the  beginnings  of  an  elaborate  system  of 
care  are  made  in  maternity,  the  medical  treatment, 
nursing  and  feeding  of  the  little  ones,  on  a  scale  which 
when  perfected  will  be  unique.  Lastly,  for  all  the 
activities  concerning  the  young  there  have  been  ample 
appropriations  of  funds  made.    None  of  them  need 


134  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

suffer  from  a  stinting  of  the  money  necessary  for  their 
full  working. 

Women. — So  far  as  emancipation  has  any  meaning 
it  is  accomplished  here.  Women  work  on  the  same 
conditions  and  on  the  same  pay  as  men;  they  act  in 
all  capacities.  The  myth  so  industriously  propagated 
of  the  nationalization  of  women  is  by  this  time  ex- 
ploded, even  in  West  Europe,  but  I  may  as  well  say 
that  nowhere  has  it  created  so  much  astonishment  and 
amusement  as  in  Russia.  Another  bugbear — socialistic 
free  love — is  equally  laid  by  the  heels.  Marriage  is  a 
civil  contract,  though  no  restrictions  are  placed  on 
the  religious  function.  But  the  best  guarantees  for 
the  formation  of  the  normal  marriage-tie  are  the  im- 
provement in  pay  and  conditions  of  life  of  the  workers, 
and  the  possibihty  of  obtaining  a  justifiable  divorce. 
They  also  act  in  another  direction  in  the  improvement 
of  social  order.  For,  speaking  of  Moscow,  open  pros- 
titution seems  to  have  disappeared.  It  may  have  be- 
come secret,  but  the  fact  remains  that  the  open  plague 
of  the  streets  of  London,  Paris,  and  all  the  great 
capitals  of  my  acquaintance  has  gone.  Probably  the 
real  reason  is  the  economic  one.  The  improvement  of 
the  lot  of  the  worker  in  Soviet  Russia  has  removed  one 
of  the  inducements  to  prostitution ;  while  in  instituting 
repressive  measures,  the  Committee  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Hygiene,  which  has  charge  of  the  subject,  has 
among  its  members  representatives  of  the  Domestic 
Servants'  Professional  Alliance,  in  accordance  with  the 
rules  of  the  Soviet.  This  is  a  measure  that  works,  as 
might  be  expected,  for  good.    The  worst  cases  are, 


CONCLUSIONS  135 

where  possible,  collected  in  camps  and  taught  to  work, 
after  which  they  are  given  the  opportunity  of  a  self- 
respecting  life.  In  some  curious  way,  Soviet  rule  thus, 
instead  of  justifying  the  descriptions  of  it  as  a  pande- 
monium, seems  to  work  for  orderliness  and  decency. 
Every  traveler  who  knew  the  old  Russia  is  well 
acquainted  with  the  hordes  of  professional  beggars.  I 
have  no  desire  to  picture  Russia  as  in  the  millennium, 
but  in  justice  it  must  be  said  that  though  there  are 
beggars,  they  are  much  less  in  evidence  than  for- 
merly; in  some  places  I  found  none  at  all;  and  that 
steps  are  to  be  taken  to  abolish  this  pest  of  the  Russian 
towns  by  placing  those  who  are  able-bodied  in  houses 
to  work,  the  incapable  in  houses  to  live.  In  fact,  the 
order  which  reigns  in  Moscow  is  an  improvement,  not 
a  deterioration.  The  security  is  so  complete  that  one 
can  cross  the  city  at  all  hours  with  perfect  impunity, 
and,  it  must  be  remembered,  that  there  is  no  street 
lighting  at  night,  fuel  is  too  scarce  and  dear.  The 
police  have  been  replaced  by  a  militia,  who  in  contrast 
with  the  streets  of  London  or  Paris,  seem  almost 
invisible;  but  order  is  maintained. 

Lastly,  there  is  the  question  of  the  requisitioning  of 
the  houses  of  the  rich  and  apportioning  them  in  apart- 
ments to  workers.  Moscow,  with  an  ordinary  popu- 
lation of  1,200,000,  has  always  had  a  bad  reputation 
for  the  housing  of  its  workers,  while  on  the  other  hand 
it  possessed  great  palaces  of  the  nobles  and  rich  mer- 
chants, clubs,  hotels,  and  restaurants  on  a  princely 
scale.  The  Revolution  and  the  fixing  here  of  the  Cen- 
tral Government  have  produced  a  great  increase  of 


136  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

the  population,  which  the  state  of  war  and  movements 
of  troops  also  intensify.  The  Soviet  Republic  is  a 
Workers'  Republic,  and,  to  meet  its  temporary  in- 
abiUty  to  house  decently  the  workers,  for  building 
operations  are  difficult,  the  houses  of  the  rich,  clubs, 
etc.,  were  taken  and  their  rooms  apportioned.  Some 
of  them  are  occupied  by  various  Commissaries  or  by 
sub-departments  of  the  Commissariats.  Training 
classes,  workmen's  clubs  and  associations,  political  and 
educational  centers,  are  housed  in  others.  The  remedy 
is  drastic,  but  the  disease  was  bad,  and  had  to  be 
treated  promptly.  And  many  of  the  proprietors  had 
fled  and  abandoned  their  houses.  The  intention  is  to 
build  houses  for  the  proper  hygienic  accommodation 
of  the  workers;  in  the  present  time  of  inability  to  do 
so  this  requisitioning  was  the  only  resource.  And  it 
has  produced  one  good  effect:  where  before  were 
housed  but  few  people,  are  now  many  thousands  under 
conditions  that  are  infinitely  simpler. 

One  by  one  my  early  impressions  have  vanished. 
Contact  with  the  reality  has  brought  the  conviction 
that  the  rule  of  the  Soviet  Republic,  so  far  as  it  affects 
children,  women,  and  the  departments  of  social  order 
and  security,  makes  for  improvement  and  not  for 
deterioration.  Already  there  is  noticeable  improve- 
ment to  be  seen,  and  if  continued,  it  bids  fair  to  be  able 
to  tackle  successfully  problems  that  have  been  too 
much  for  the  older  Governments  in  the  West. 


CONCLUSIONS  137 

Culture  under  Soviet  Rule 

One  of  the  criticisms  usually  made  of  a  socialist 
community  is  that  it  must  of  necessity  be  a  dismal 
affair  of  uniformity,  with  cultivation  disappearing,  or 
being  maintained  at  the  level  of  an  elementary  school. 
The  glories  of  art  would  altogether  vanish,  in  fact  the 
texture  of  a  socialist  society  would  admit  of  only  the 
crudest  and  most  inartistic  color.  I  had  myself  been 
so  anxious  about  the  treasures  of  Petrograd  and 
Moscow,  not  to  mention  the  vast  private  collections, 
that  I  took  special  pains  to  learn  what  had  become  of 
them,  and  whether  the  usual  criticism  showed  any 
signs  of  becoming  true.  The  best  answer  to  my  fears 
was  the  reply  of  the  Commissary  of  Education  to  my 
questions  on  this  subject,  "  we  have  here  a  rich  culture 
which  we  would  not  willingly  lose."  And  so  far  from 
losing  it,  care  is  taken  to  preserve  it  lovingly,  and  to 
use  and  extend  it. 

The  great  collections,  public  and  private,  of  Petro- 
grad were  carefully  packed  and  placed  in  safety  in 
Moscow,  where,  but  for  the  feeling  that  Petrograd 
ought  not  to  be  robbed  of  its  own,  they  would  find 
a  permanent  home.  In  Moscow  the  Tretiakovsky  Gal- 
lery is  not  only  maintained,  it  has  been  extended  from 
private  collections  and  by  buying;  while  the  great 
palaces  filled  with  treasures  of  art  are  maintained  as 
museums  for  the  pleasure  and  improvement  of  all.  In 
nationalizing  the  theaters,  care  has  been  taken  to 
preserve  the  independence  of  the  famous  Ballet 
schools,  and  of  the  celebrated  Moscow  Art  Theater. 


138  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

The  fullest  opportunity  is  given  to  them  to  continue 
working  on  the  lines  that  have  brought  them  their 
great  reputation,  while  for  the  other  theaters  nationali- 
zation would  appear  to  have  brought  only  one  change 
— a  vast  and  appreciative  audience  of  those  to  whom 
formerly  the  theater  was  almost  "  forbidden  fruit," 
for  the  tickets  are  distributed  through  the  workers' 
associations.  There  is,  at  least  here  in  Moscow,  a 
strong  movement  of  taste  toward  the  theater.  The 
reason  of  it  is  hard  to  find.  It  is  catered  for  by  special 
committees  of  the  Commissariat  of  Education,  and  of 
the  Moscow  Soviet,  with  results  both  for  children  and 
adults  which  will  astonish  any  who  see  them.  The 
same  can  be  said  of  music,  which,  as  a  popular  educa- 
tive recreation,  has  taken  on  a  similar  extension.  So 
far  from  artistic  culture  being  moribund,  it  appears  to 
have  taken  a  fresh  lease  of  vigorous  life.  The  four 
great  art  schools  of  Petrograd  and  Moscow,  while  be- 
ing nationalized,  have  been  opened  to  new  influences, 
and  their  students  are  stimulated  by  being  allowed  to 
provide  the  decorations  for  the  official  fetes;  while  the 
first  monuments  to  be  set  up  by  the  Republic,  of  men, 
and  of  symbolic  emblems,  give  more  than  a  hope  that 
this  form  of  artistic  appeal  will  be  controlled  by  a 
real  and  a  good  taste.  To  the  enjoyment  of  all  these 
cultivating  pleasures  come  now  a  mass  of  people 
enabled  by  their  greater  leisure  and  improved  condi- 
tion, not  only  to  become  aware  of  them,  but  to  use 
them;  in  strong  contrast  to  their  condition  under  the 
old  regime,  when  they  were  not  only  ignorant  of  the 
cultivating  pleasures  of  art,  but  were  cut  off  from  all 


CONCLUSIONS  139 

approach  to  them.  Russia  has  never  lacked  genius  in 
any  form,  certainly  not  in  art,  and  so  far  from  de- 
stroying culture  and  genius,  it  looks  as  if  the  Socialist 
Republic,  by  giving  greater  opportunities  of  approach 
to  art,  greater  leisure  for  enjoying  it,  greater  chances 
of  application  to  it,  would  be  far  more  likely  to 
discover  and  bring  out  genius  that  but  for  it  would 
have  died  unnoticed. 


Summing  Up 

The  sum  total  of  my  investigations  can  be  quickly 
expressed.  I  have  not  found  the  millennium — far  from 
it — but  the  reality  is  far  otherwise  than  the  stories 
circulated  at  home  would  make  one  believe.  The 
Government  is  strong.  On  a  priori  grounds  it  could 
be  argued  that  a  regime  which  can  hold  out  for  two 
years  under  the  appalling  conditions  obtaining  in 
Russia  must  be  strong.  But  I  have  evidence  of  its 
strength  and  of  the  elaborateness  of  its  organization. 
And  it  grows  stronger.  The  men  in  power  are  sincere, 
fanatical,  if  you  will,  in  the  strength  of  their  adher- 
ence to  the  principles  of  the  Revolution.  This  they 
regard  as  the  opening  stage  of  the  world's  next  period 
of  evolution — the  socialistic.  Given  this,  they  are 
capable  administrators,  profiting  by  the  hard  experi- 
ence they  are  gaining,  quick  and  supple  to  make  the 
changes  which  that  experience  indicates.  And  with 
all  that,  they  are  men  of  simple  life,  working  at  in- 
tense strain,  submitting  voluntarily  to  a  discipline  of 
iron  and  a  self-imposed  system  of  control  that  is  com- 


140  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

plete  to  an  extreme  degree.  If  the  tyranny  which  in 
the  west  of  Europe  it  is  repeatedly  said  exists  here 
really  does  exist,  it  is  not  evident.  And  whatever  may 
be  the  rigidity  with  which  laws  are  enforced,  it  is  the 
same  for  all.  There  is  not  one  rule  for  the  govern- 
ing class  and  another  for  the  workers:  here  all  obey 
alike.  Instead  of  anarchy  I  find  a  peaceful  occupa- 
tion with  the  daily  business  of  life  in  town  and  coun- 
try that  is  astonishing.  Orderliness  is  most  marked, 
and  abuses  which  were  the  plague  spot  of  Russia  are 
beginning  to  disappear;  while  the  efforts  of  the  Gov- 
ernment for  the  uplifting  of  the  people,  physically, 
morally,  and  intellectually,  are  surprising  in  character, 
extent,  and  success.  I  find  an  industry,  broken  by  six 
years  of  war  and  the  lack  of  necessaries,  yet  function- 
ing and  providing  in  spite  of  everything  for  the  wants 
of  the  people  partly,  for  the  army  wholly.  And  its 
directors  are  breaking  out  inventively,  starting  even 
now  new  enterprises  and  planning  great  extensions  for 
the  happy  time  they  hope  and  believe  is  ahead.  As 
for  the  spirit  of  the  people,  I  have  said  that  I  have 
not  found  the  millennium,  but  I  find  at  the  back  of 
this  Government  a  mass  of  the  workers  solidly.  Of 
the  peasants  one-third  supports  the  regime,  and  an- 
other third  will  probably  find  that  its  interests  rest 
with  the  success  of  the  present  system.  Of  the  edu- 
cated classes  a  portion,  a  minority,  works  harmoniously 
with  the  Soviet  rule,  for  they  see  that  it  is  neither 
mean  nor  base,  but  honestly  striving  for  a  new,  whole- 
some, and  happier  social  system.  The  greater  part 
of  them  are  resentful  or  hostile,  and  I  think  that  the 


CONCLUSIONS  141 

older  and  richer  members  are  likely  to  remain  im- 
placably hostile  to  Bolshevism.  In  any  overturn  of  a 
social  order  there  is  bound  to  be  resentment  and  anger 
from  those  who  suffer  in  the  change.  And  in  the  con- 
ditions prevailing  in  Tsaristic  Russia  it  is  easy  to  see 
who  were  the  people  who  would  sufifer  most  in  pocket, 
pride,  and  position  from  a  change.  But  that  resent- 
ment does  not  shake  the  Government,  nor  do  I  think 
that  it,  of  itself,  ever  will;  while,  and  the  point  is  im- 
portant, the  continuation  of  the  attacks  from  the  out- 
side is  making  the  resistance  of  the  socialist  stronger, 
it  is  adding,  as  their  helpers  and  comrades,  non-party 
men,  and  now  even  the  men  of  the  parties  who  were 
opposed  to  Bolshevism,  the  Mensheviks  and  the  Social 
Revolutionaries. 

The  Communism  which  the  leaders  are  out  to  estab- 
lish is,  at  present,  imperfect.  The  pressure  of  circum- 
stances, traditions,  and  habits  has  been  too  strong  and 
has  led  to  concessions  which  transform  the  commu- 
nistic character  of  the  movement,  even  while  one  looks 
on.  And  the  final  transformation  of  the  Bolshevistic 
regime  into  something  acceptable  to  the  majority  of 
the  Russian  people  is  denied  by  the  policy  which  places 
a  ring  of  enemies  round  the  country  and  closes  the 
frontiers  hermetically  to  the  modifying  influences  of 
commercial  relations  and  intercourse. 

This  brings  up  one  last  point — the  action  of  the 
Allies  regarding  Russia. 

In  supporting  Koltchak,  Denikin,  Balakhovitch,  and 
Judenitch  in  their  anti-Bolshevik  campaigns,  they  have 
been  supporting  men  who,  whatever  their  personal 


142  BOLSHEVISM  AT  WORK 

character  and  intentions,  are  surrounded  by  the  heads 
of  the  old  regime  and  by  many  of  its  underlings,  all 
eager  to  restore  the  old  conditions,  to  reduce  peasants 
and  workers  to  the  circumstances  of  Tsaristic  times, 
and  replace  the  former  social  order.  The  small  border 
States  have  been  subsidized  to  the  same  end,  and  when 
they,  with  a  keener  sense  of  the  realities  than  that  of 
their  subsidizers,  refuse  to  do  more  than  maintain  their 
own  integrity,  the  prize  dangled  before  them — the  rec- 
ognition of  their  independence — is  withheld. 

The  purpose  of  this  support  announced  to  the  world 
is  the  destruction  of  the  Bolshevist  Government,  hop- 
ing thus  for  the  disappearance  of  Bolshevism.  This 
is  a  confession  of  ignorance,  for  Bolshevism  is  a  spirit- 
ual phenomenon,  and  as  such  is  impervious  to  bullets. 
The  Soviet  Republic  may  be  destroyed,  but  Bolshevism 
would  not,  for  that,  disappear. 

The  contrary  effect  is  being  produced,  and  Bol- 
shevism grows  stronger  for  the  isolated  position  in 
which  its  expressed  form  is  kept. 

The  blockade  is  therefore  the  greatest  enemy  of  the 
purpose  of  the  blockade,  and  the  whole  policy  is  futile. 
For  the  accompanying  campaign  oi  calumny  has  de- 
feated its  own  ends  by  making  thinking  people  in  the 
long  run  see  good  where  all  is  not  good,  excellence  in 
things  open  to  criticism,  white  where  the  Western  chan- 
celleries call  out  black. 

No  amount  of  atrocity-mongering  by  violent  ex  parte 
statements  can  remove  the  blood-guiltiness  of  the 
proteges  of  the  Allies;  no  amount  of  calumny  can 
destroy  the  fact  that  the  Russian  Revolution  is  at 


CONCLUSIONS  143 

bottom  a  moral,  even  a  puritanical  revolution,  making 
for  simplicity  and  purity  of  life  and  government;  and 
no  amount  of  pressure  can  fit  the  Russian  people  with 
a  Government  framed  and  forged  in  the  West.  They 
must  find  their  own.  And  that  they  cannot  do  until 
the  subsidized  civil  war  is  brought  to  an  end,  and  the 
transforming  influences  of  the  Western  World  are 
freely  felt  across  frontiers  once  more  open  to  inter- 
national traffic. 


THE  END 


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